Sarkozy's Wife Seeks to Block Book Disparaging Husband

Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cécilia today attempted to block the publication of a book which quotes her describing the president as a seducer, a skinflint and incapable of loving anyone, even his children.

The latest episode in the soap opera of the French president's private life came as three separate books on his ex-wife were due for publication this week, while the nation awaits his third marriage to the former model, Carla Bruni, after a whirlwind romance.

Lawyers for Cécilia Sarkozy, who divorced the president in October, told a Paris court that the book, Cécilia, by a political journalist, breached her private life.

Judges will make a decision tomorrow morning. Extracts have been published in magazines, and the book is already in some shops.

In one passage, France's former first lady was quoted as saying that the behavior of Sarkozy after her departure - a hotchpotch of women and "karaoke until 4am" - was not dignified. "He's not like a president, he has a real behavior problem."

Roger Karoutchi, secretary of state for parliamentary relations, defended the president and his ex-wife, saying she had denied making the comments. He said coverage of the president's private life was out of control.

"We are now saying that he doesn't love his children. Can you not see where this is leading?" he said on French TV before the court action. "This is ridiculous. We have to stop. It's getting completely out of hand."

Karoutchi stressed that Sarkozy had an affectionate and close bond with his 10-year-old son Louis, born from his marriage to Cécilia. The president also has two sons, Pierre, 22, and Jean, 21, from his first marriage.

Anna Bitton, the book's author, said she was surprised by Cécilia Sarkozy's decision to go to court. She told Agence France-Presse: "The book is based on the long relationship that we have developed over the years as part of my journalistic work."

If the book is banned, it would be the second work on Cécilia Sarkozy to be pulled. In 2005, an authorized biography was pulped after Sarkozy, then interior minister, summoned the publisher to his office.

The magazine Le Nouvel Observateur said of the three new books: "The publishing avalanche could be the crowning of a French Lady Di - someone who has known the inner workings of power and comes back to destroy it with words."

Meanwhile, the weekly Canard Enchaîné quoted Sarkozy's advisers on how his relationship with Bruni had transformed the workaholic president, who now "laughs over the slightest thing" and likes to "tell jokes and dirty stories".

The paper quoted the prime minister François Fillon, telling aides: "When you talk to the president, he doesn't always listen. He cancels meetings, which is not like him. I wonder how this is all going to end."