DJ jaunts of Sarkozy’s son costing the taxpayer £150k a year

Published on Monday 13 February 2012 12:15

President Nicolas Sarkozy has come under fire for spending £150,000 a year of French taxpayers’ money protecting his son – branded “the most expensive DJ in history” as he jets round the world performing in nightclubs.

The huge cost of armed police for Pierre Sarkozy, 26, has been revealed amid mounting claims during the election run-up of the French president’s abuse of public finances for himself and his family.

The president was accused two weeks ago of lavishing £35,000 on a ministerial jet to fly Pierre home after he fell ill before a gig at a Ukrainian nightclub.

It then emerged last week that Mr Sarkozy also spends around £10,000 a day on food and keeps 121 cars under the Elysee Palace while the rest of the country is subjected to mounting austerity measures.

Now the full cost of the special treatment enjoyed by his son Pierre has been exposed by French investigative website Mediapart.

He is continuously flanked by two armed protection officers each on an annual salary of £75,000 as he globe-trots with his pals.

For gigs he is due to perform in Brazil later this month, French officials wrote asking the Brazilians to “open up the VIP suites” at airports for him.

French embassy officials also asked for Mr Sarkozy’s private police to be allowed to carry their guns on Brazilian soil and for extra Brazilian police escorts during the forthcoming week-long tour from 20 February.

Mediapart said the same requests had been issued during recent DJ tours in Austria, Russia, Germany and Switzerland.

The site added: “Apart from the massive wage bill, there is also food and accommodation costs for these police offficers.”

French daily paper France-Soir said yesterday: “Pierre is costing around £150,000 a year in police wages alone. Does this make him the most expensive DJ in history?”

President Sarkozy was widely criticised last month after Pierre – known as DJ Mosey – was struck by food-poisoning in the Black Sea city of Odessa. He was rushed to the airport in a Mercedes while a presidential Dassault Falcon jet was flown straight from Paris to pick him up.

Mr Sarkozy insisted that he had paid for his son’s medical fees, but the cost of the private jet was still met by taxpayers.

Pierre and his brother Jean are Mr Sarkozy’s sons from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli.

Days after Pierre was flown home, socialist MP Rene Dosiere made a catalogue of charges over Mr Sarkozy’s excessive spending in his new book L’Argent de l’Etat (The Money of the State).

He said the president “spends more money per year than the British Queen” and drinks a £160 bottle of wine most nights with his dinner.

Mr Sarkozy also spends an average of 24 hours a week aboard his luxury £215 million official plane, an Airbus A330 dubbed Air Sarko One, often accompanied by hundreds of people.

Mr Dosiere said: “The president ignores the most elementary principles of the separation between private and public accounts.”

Last year it emerged that Mr Sarkozy had spent more than £65,000 equipping the plane with state-of-the-art ovens - just so he could enjoy fresh bread while airborne.

The attacks on Mr Sarkozy’s excessive spending now threaten to further undermine his chances of getting re-elected in less than three months time.

The Elysee Palace said it could not comment on any individual finances related to the President or his family.

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