HE MAY be the most popular French president since Charles de Gaulle, but Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife Cécilia was gaining on him last week as admiration grew for a rebellious streak in her that extended to snubbing America’s leader.

French diplomats were aghast, but Cécilia’s latest offence - she bowed out of a picnic with the Bushes last weekend on the pretext of having a sore throat - has turned her into a symbol of women’s emancipation.

The French press seized on Cécilia’s shopping spree the day after she turned down a presidential hotdog lunch in Kennebunkport, Maine, as evidence that her ailment was more of a “mal de George” - an aversion to Bush - than a “mal de gorge”, or sore throat.

This played well with an anti-Bush French public already caricaturing the pint-sized Sarkozy, who went out boating with Bush and his father, as the next “American poodle” after Tony Blair.

“I would never vote for her husband, but I think that Cécilia has an attractive freedom of spirit,” said Laure Picard, a 32-year-old furniture restorer in Paris. “She is her own person, not her husband’s subsidiary.” The Libération newspaper, bible of the French left, was just as admiring of Cécilia, a former model who had already raised eyebrows by not voting in the presidential election and ducking out of a G8 summit in Germany to celebrate her daughter’s birthday in Paris.

“For years we have backed emancipation for women and cannot be surprised that they use it,” said the paper. “Whatever one thinks of her husband’s ideas, Cécilia Sarkozy’s antics are a sign of progress. She is much more than a ‘wife of’.”

One of the paper’s readers called Cécilia the country’s “top model” and said she would do wonders for France’s image: “Let’s be honest, she is prettier than Madame [Bernadette] Chirac, younger too. The Elysée will look younger. Where is the harm in that?”

Cécilia, who claimed years ago that being first lady would “bore” her and that she was not “politically correct”, has certainly eschewed the example set by her predecessor, a matronly figure who collected yellow centime coins for charity. Instead, she has thrown herself into the high-stakes world of international hostage negotiations.

Her mission to Libya to help secure the release of five Bulgar-ian nurses and a Palestinian doctor facing a death sentence after being accused of infecting children with the HIV virus put her under a global spotlight, particularly when it was claimed that France had offered to sell weapons and a nuclear reactor to a regime that had, until recently, been considered a global pariah.

Sarkozy, 52, has denied there was any nuclear deal, but there were calls for Cécilia to explain her role in the release of the nurses to a parliamentary committee investigating the affair.

Sarkozy was expected back in his office tomorrow for discussions about the crisis of confidence on global markets. Having promised more “transparency” in the running of the presidency, he also faces questions about the cost of his holiday in New Hamp-shire, estimated at £150,000.

Cécilia, 49, a former events organiser, has let it be known that, over the next few weeks, she will “clarify” what role she will play as first lady. A spokeswoman said her priority would always be her children - two grown-up daughters from a previous marriage and 10-year-old Louis, the son she had by Sarkozy - but she was expected to deploy her growing international profile wherever she felt it could be useful.

There has been speculation in Paris that her success in Libya might encourage her to offer help in freeing Ingrid Betan-court, the Colombian presidential candidate held by leftist guerrillas in the Amazon since 2002. Thursday marked the 2,000th day of her captivity.

There were also suggestions that Cécilia could offer her services in winning freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democratic opposition leader.

Others have speculated that Cécilia may have her sights set on elected office: she was said to have been bitterly disappointed when her husband told her that he did not want her to stand as a candidate for councillor in regional elections in 2004. Not long after that, she left him for another man in New York.

Sarkozy wooed her back in 2006 but it is said she resolved that she would no longer settle for the role of glamorous “wife of” Sarkozy.

What is certain is the extent to which “Sarko” dotes on his unpredictable wife. “My only concern is Cécilia,” he was quoted as saying two months ago. The public is beginning to understand why.

Times Recommends

• Should Knox’s trial even have reached the courtroom?
• 'Was it real?' The US bailout nightmare
• Iranian opposition plays the long game