Sarkozy Says New Daughter a ‘Private Joy': Carla to Reveal the Name
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed delight Thursday at the birth of his new daughter, declaring it a "very profound joy, a joy all the deeper because it is private."
Sarkozy and first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy had decided not to officially announce the birth, but Sarkozy reacted warmly when waste-processing plant workers gave him gifts during a visit to the western Mayenne region.
"Oh, that's really kind, very thoughtful," he smiled, three hours after spending 40 minutes with Bruni and the baby girl in a Paris maternity clinic. "They're doing really well," he added.
Asked what the child would be called, Sarkozy said: "We're going to let mum have the pleasure of revealing that."
Sarkozy was to make a speech in Mayenne later in the day before returning to Paris. Although he has not declared his intent to stand for re-election in April, he has adopted a full campaign schedule.
Sarkozy arrived at the clinic shortly before 11:00 pm, just over three hours after the birth, Agence France Presse reporters outside saw.
"It happened between 7:00 and 7:30 pm. Everything went well," a second source told AFP. The staff at the clinic has been reminded of the strict duty of medical confidentiality, and Sarkozy's office was silent.
The girl is the French first couple's first baby since their marriage in 2008, although Bruni has one 10-year-old son from a previous relationship and thrice-married Sarkozy has three aged 14 to 26.
The baby is also the first born to a serving French president.
In an interview pre-recorded for a French state television broadcast due on Thursday, Bruni-Sarkozy said she had not known the baby's sex: "We've arranged for it to be a big surprise. Obviously, a nice surprise."
Sarkozy had earlier in the day visited his 43-year-old wife in the Paris clinic for half-an-hour, but was forced to jet off to Germany for crisis talks on the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis before the birth itself.
He left Frankfurt just before the birth was announced, after talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, IMF director Christine Lagarde and the current and next heads of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and Mario Draghi.
The French president left the hospital shortly after midnight without talking to the assembled reporters.
The unpopular 56-year-old center-right leader is languishing in the opinion polls, far behind newly-crowned Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, and faces a tough battle for re-election in next April's first round vote.
But -- despite the lure of a rare round of warm-hearted headlines -- the Elysee has so far chosen not to publicize the pregnancy, fearing that France's electorate would react badly to the exploitation of private life.
In any case, political scientists told AFP that any "baby bump" in the opinion polls would be short-lived and arrive too late to in itself save Sarkozy from the ignominy of a single-term presidency.
This was perhaps why he chose to miss the opportunity of seeing his first daughter's birth in order to head to Frankfurt and battle for what could be a greater political prize, that of saving the European financial system.
In the run-up to the birth, Bruni-Sarkozy insisted political considerations and timing -- even the expectation of a birth in mid financial crisis -- had not been taken into account as the first family made its plans.
She insisted any baby's arrival is "a happy carefree moment and that's how it's been since the dawn of time.
"We're in a time of crisis, but if human reproduction was decided by thinking about whether you're going to have a perfect life, we wouldn't be here to talk about it, neither you nor I," the Italian-born heiress said.
"What's more, I think that the survival instinct is also expressed by the desire to have a child."
"Of course, I'll look after the baby, but I don't see that that should stop me working," she said, stressing that she receives a lot of help and does not have a difficult life.
"As to the duties related to my husband's job -- and there are not so many -- I do them willingly," she said.
Bruni-Sarkozy dodged a question about whether Sarkozy would take part in next year's presidential campaign, which the journalist suggested might be "ferocious", saying: "Me, I don't campaign!"
Source: Agence France Presse
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