Opposed by an elegant feminist for the top job in France and dumped by his wife, Nicolas Sarkozy knows that there is one woman who is always on his side — his maman. But as every man with a proud mother is aware, they can be a little . . . outspoken, particularly on the issue of whether there is a woman who is good enough for their son.

Andrée Sarkozy, 82, a lawyer who brought up her three young sons after their father left, does not appear to hold — in an ex-mother-in-law sort of way — Cécilia Ciganer, his former wife, in high regard. “We had a good relationship without being close . . . She is cold but she doesn’t do it on purpose and she has always been nice to me,” she told a celebrity magazine, sniffily.

The newly divorced President could have his pick of women, she said. But he should avoid marrying any of them. “I have had enough of brides.”

“Daudou”, as Mr Sarkozy calls his formidable mother, gave her views in an interview about her trip to China with him on a state visit ten days ago. She said that she was not close to Cécilia’s daughters from a previous marriage, Judith and Jeanne-Marie, whose presence added to the glamour of their step-father’s inauguration last May. “They are distant. Very cold, a little like their mother,” she told Point de Vue, in case anybody had missed the point. She spoke of her pride in her “brilliant” Nicolas, the son to whom she had always been closest.

Even as a boy, he was fascinated with politics. “When he was 14, when I gave a dinner, the other two would disappear but he would stay because he liked talking to my doctor and lawyer friends.”

France’s First Mother also rated “the girls” whom he had appointed to his Cabinet. “The one who knocks me out with her elegant looks is [Christine] Lagarde,” she said of the Finance Minister. “I have talked to her less than with the two kids,” she added, in a reference to Rachida Dati, the 42-year-old Justice Minister, and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, 34, the junior Ecology Minister.

Commenting on the China trip, she said: “We had great fun with the government girls. Rachida and I have a good laugh together and little Nathalie is really great.” During a stopover in Siberia, Ms Lagarde, 51, had tried to get off the plane to join two ministers enjoying a quick vodka. She tripped on the steps in her high heels and “by luck, she was caught in mid-air by my bodyguard”. The President’s mother added: “All the government women had high heels. I admire that.”

Oh, mother!

— Jackie Stallone is extremely picky about her son Sylvester’s girlfriends. She once said: “The only woman good enough for my son is Princess Diana”. She also denounced his former wife, Brigitte Nielsen as a “gold digger” and “25 per cent slut”

— Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, sent millions to their deaths, but his mother wrote in her memoirs “My Soso was a very sensitive child"

— When Gordon Brown was accused in 1996 of lacking business experience, he replied by citing his mother’s time as a high-powered director of a building firm. She responded: “I don’t know why Gordon is saying all this. It’s all a bit embarrassing. I was not a working director at all.”

— Before the 1997 election Michael Howard’s mother, Hilda, confessed that she still worried about him even though he was Home Secretary. “He had such asthma as a child, and his poor chest is still weak,” she said. “He gets these terrible colds and can’t shake them off.”

Source: Times archives, agencies

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