Why François becomes Mohammed

The pop singer-wife of President Sarkozy courted controversy yesterday by criticising Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, for his remarks on Barack Obama, and denouncing France for systemic racial discrimination.

Italian-born Carla Bruni, 40, a former super-model and icon of leftwing chic, created a stir with her outspoken support for a petition in favour of affirmative action in France in the wake of Mr Obama’s presidential victory. She singled out Mr Berlusconi's joke on Friday in which he remarked that Mr Obama had an admirable suntan.

“When I hear Silvio Berlusconi ... joke about the fact that Obama is ’always tanned’, that makes me feel funny,” she told le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. “That will be put down to humour. But often, I am very happy that I have become French,” she said.

Ms Bruni, who took out French citizenship after her marriage to Mr Sarkozy last February, risked embarrassing her rightwing husband as he seeks Mr Berlusconi’s backing for a pan-European initiative to rescue the world economy.

She also delivered an outspoken attack on France’s failure to integrate its big population of black and north African immigrants. She backed a manifesto issued today by a campaign for affirmative action, to combat the failure of mainstream France to offer equal job opportunities and education to the descendants of non-white immigrants. France has Europe’s biggest Muslim population.

“Power (in France) has often had the same face: that of men who are white and ageing,” she said. “That is why I can identify with this appeal. Without political measures we will be waiting too long,” she said.

The petition, titled “Yes We Can” - Mr Obama’s campaign slogan - said that his “election illustrated by a cruel contrast the failings of the French Republic.” It added: “By neglecting its own diversity, France has driven to despair a whole swathe of its youth and has prevented it from being proud of its country.”

France’s political establishment remains overwhelmingly white, despite the appointment of two women of north African descent and a black human rights minister in Sarkozy’s government. There is only one black member of Parliament from mainland France and none of Arab origin.

Ms Bruni nevertheless said that France did not suffer from the “brutal racism” that the United States had endured in the past. She recalled how, on a modelling shoot in South Carolina in 1992, she had been required to eat in private with her sister models. When she asked the reason, she was told that the local restaurant would not accept the presence of one of her colleagues - Naomi Campbell.

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