Sarkozy has bad day: big strike and divorce

PARIS – On the same day that a massive strike crippled public transportation here, President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Cecilia, announced the end of their marriage.

On both fronts, the president remained silent Thursday.

Of the one-day strike challenging Sarkozy’s plan to reform France’s public sector, Sarkozy had no comment as he left for a European Union meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. Of his plans to divorce, he spoke only through official papers, released twice by the Elysee Palace, saying there would be no comment.

The Sarkozys had appeared before a judge Monday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to ask for a divorce by “mutual agreement,” according to their lawyer, Michele Cahen, who told reporters that “Everything went well. … I was both of their lawyers, and I couldn’t have been if there had been a disagreement.”

There was, however, plenty of speculation about whether the Elysee had chosen the day of a long-planned challenge to Sarkozy’s presidency to confirm the breakup, diverting the media to the details of an imploding marriage.

Since Nicolas Sarkozy came into office six months ago, Cecilia Sarkozy, 49, has shown little interest in the job of first wife, appearing only sporadically at his side. But all day Thursday scenes from happier times in the 11-year marriage of the president and the former model streamed across the television news, relegating the headlines on the strike to the bottom of the screen. Footage of 20,000 union members marching on a sunny day from Paris’ famed Place de la Republique hardly turned up.