Sarkozy met only workers shorter than him, factory employee claims

[undeterred]

Source: The Times Online

All eyes were once again drawn to the modest height of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, after news that a crowd of vertically challenged people was assembled to give him enhanced stature in a television appearance.

A factory worker in Normandy told Belgian television that organisers had called for volunteers no taller than Mr Sarkozy’s 5ft 5in to stand behind him during a speech at their plant.

“You had to be no taller than the President?” Jean-Philippe Schaller, the reporter, asked the unidentified woman at the Faurecia company, which Mr Sarkozy used as the backdrop for his televised speech last Thursday. “That’s right,” she replied.

“Apart from the bosses, not a head Sarkozy,” declared Mr Schaller, who was reporting on the elaborate stage-management of Mr Sarkozy’s public appearances. After footage of the factory’s white-coated staff flashed around the internet and into mainstream media yesterday, the Élysée Palace dismissed the story as “totally preposterous and grotesque” — but did not directly deny it.


Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6825349.ece

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How "Napoleon" of him.

[Skittles]

1. if that's true that is very sad indeed

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Why does this make me think of **?

[undeterred]

3. I guess its not as bad as meeting only people who

sign a statement of agreement with you. But it does seem horribly vain.

Edit: At least he doesn't limit himself to only meeting world leaders who are shorter than he is.

[Sal Minella]

4. Because * insisted on a short fireman to stand with on the smouldering

ruins of the WTC? At a time like that, he's worried about how tall he looks on camera. What a short, short man.

[LeftyMom]

5. That shot appears to be a trick of perspective.

Unless President Sarcozy prefers his microphones be positioned a few inches above his hair, in which case the recruitment of workers from the lollipop guild as campaign props makes perfect sense.

I'd wager money that the gentleman standing in front of the background group, the one with the close-cropped hair, is a good bit taller than 5'5". He'd pretty much have to be unless all of the women are about 4'10".