French president spent the night undergoing further tests on his heart following a dizzy spell while jogging
Nicolas Sarkozy was tonight resting at his country retreat after he was released from hospital following a collapse while jogging.
While the French president’s political allies insisted that he was on the mend, political commentators questioned his hyperactive lifestyle. The French president emerged from a military hospital in Paris on Monday morning looking tired but smiling, waving at onlookers and shaking hands with doctors, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
He had been rushed in for tests on Sunday after a fainting episode at the end of a 45-minute midday run in temperatures of more than 30 degrees in the park of the Palace of Versailles.
Although the president’s entourage said he had continued to liaise with political staff from his hospital bed, a trip to Normandy’s Mont-Saint-Michel on Tuesday was cancelled after doctors ordered the president to take some “relative rest”.
The Élysée said doctors had found no signs of heart or neurological trouble and the 54-year-old president’s minor fainting episode was down to his heavy workload and over-exertion.
“The diagnosis is a faintness from a sustained physical effort in great heat,” the Élysée said, pointing out that the president “had not lost consciousness” and the incident came “in a context of fatigue stemming from a heavy workload.”
The health of France’s jogging-fanatic president appeared intact but many questioned whether his action man image as “Speedy Sarko” would be damaged. He has carefully crafted a “Super Sarko” media image as a youthful, deliberately hyperactive president who refuses to delegate and likes to be seen as a workaholic and a super-fit, testosterone-fuelled runner and cyclist. He regularly goes on long runs clutching his mobile phone, inviting TV crews to follow him.
Newspaper Le Monde said it was “unlikely” that Sarkozy’s self-styled image as the omnipresent “president who governs – alert and dashing, present on all fronts and exhausted by nothing” would leave hospital intact.
One political colleague told the paper how Sarkozy had been affected by the heat on a visit to the Tour de France last week: “The problem is that he does too much, he’s overworked.” A minister added that his health scare was “unavoidable” given his “way of life”. Patrick Balkany, a centre-right mayor and family friend of the Sarkozys, said the president was on a strict diet and exercise regime and this incident was a warning to slow down.
Others in Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party defended his image. Patrick Devedjian, Sarkozy’s minister for economic recovery, told French radio: “He’s hyperactive, everyone can see that … He imposes a very heavy work load on himself. He likes to say: “Sometimes people criticise me, saying I do too much, but I think I don’t do enough.”
Sarkozy, currently resting at La Lanterne, his weekend hunting lodge in the grounds of Versailles, is expected to chair the last cabinet meeting of the political season on Wednesday before taking three weeks’ holiday at his wife’s family retreat on the Cote d’Azur.
His ruling centre-right party boasted that the Elysee had been totally transparent in telling the nation about the health scare, contrary to France’s tradition of shrouding leaders’ health problems in secrecy.
But in reality, the Elysee had little choice: Sarkozy had been jogging past tourists in Versailles and there were numerous witnesses to his fainting episode, including one French radio journalist who said he had seen him looking tired and barely able to drag his legs along at an earlier stage in his run.
Sarkozy leaves hospital after tests
French president spent the night undergoing further tests on his heart following a dizzy spell while jogging
Nicolas Sarkozy was tonight resting at his country retreat after he was released from hospital following a collapse while jogging.
While the French president’s political allies insisted that he was on the mend, political commentators questioned his hyperactive lifestyle. The French president emerged from a military hospital in Paris on Monday morning looking tired but smiling, waving at onlookers and shaking hands with doctors, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
He had been rushed in for tests on Sunday after a fainting episode at the end of a 45-minute midday run in temperatures of more than 30 degrees in the park of the Palace of Versailles.
Although the president’s entourage said he had continued to liaise with political staff from his hospital bed, a trip to Normandy’s Mont-Saint-Michel on Tuesday was cancelled after doctors ordered the president to take some “relative rest”.
The Élysée said doctors had found no signs of heart or neurological trouble and the 54-year-old president’s minor fainting episode was down to his heavy workload and over-exertion.
“The diagnosis is a faintness from a sustained physical effort in great heat,” the Élysée said, pointing out that the president “had not lost consciousness” and the incident came “in a context of fatigue stemming from a heavy workload.”
The health of France’s jogging-fanatic president appeared intact but many questioned whether his action man image as “Speedy Sarko” would be damaged. He has carefully crafted a “Super Sarko” media image as a youthful, deliberately hyperactive president who refuses to delegate and likes to be seen as a workaholic and a super-fit, testosterone-fuelled runner and cyclist. He regularly goes on long runs clutching his mobile phone, inviting TV crews to follow him.
Newspaper Le Monde said it was “unlikely” that Sarkozy’s self-styled image as the omnipresent “president who governs – alert and dashing, present on all fronts and exhausted by nothing” would leave hospital intact.
One political colleague told the paper how Sarkozy had been affected by the heat on a visit to the Tour de France last week: “The problem is that he does too much, he’s overworked.” A minister added that his health scare was “unavoidable” given his “way of life”. Patrick Balkany, a centre-right mayor and family friend of the Sarkozys, said the president was on a strict diet and exercise regime and this incident was a warning to slow down.
Others in Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party defended his image. Patrick Devedjian, Sarkozy’s minister for economic recovery, told French radio: “He’s hyperactive, everyone can see that … He imposes a very heavy work load on himself. He likes to say: “Sometimes people criticise me, saying I do too much, but I think I don’t do enough.”
Sarkozy, currently resting at La Lanterne, his weekend hunting lodge in the grounds of Versailles, is expected to chair the last cabinet meeting of the political season on Wednesday before taking three weeks’ holiday at his wife’s family retreat on the Cote d’Azur.
His ruling centre-right party boasted that the Elysee had been totally transparent in telling the nation about the health scare, contrary to France’s tradition of shrouding leaders’ health problems in secrecy.
But in reality, the Elysee had little choice: Sarkozy had been jogging past tourists in Versailles and there were numerous witnesses to his fainting episode, including one French radio journalist who said he had seen him looking tired and barely able to drag his legs along at an earlier stage in his run.