Sarkozy’s son won’t seek high-profile post

PARIS (AP) — Amid fierce accusations of favoritism, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s son renounced his candidacy Thursday for the leadership of the organization that runs France’s most important business district on the western edge of Paris.

Jean Sarkozy said he would run to join the council that oversees La Defense in a vote today but that accusations of favoritism had led him to reconsider his decision ultimately to seek its presidency when that vote takes place Dec. 4.

“I do not want a victory stained by doubt,” Sarkozy said.

The younger Sarkozy’s candidacy had drawn mounting criticism from both the left and among the ruling conservatives on grounds the 23-year-old, who has not completed his law studies, was not qualified for the high-profile job. The whiff of nepotism was starting to damage his powerful father, whose ratings have slipped in the last two weeks, in part because of the polemic over his son and because of the controversy over a book by Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand describing paying young men for sex in Thailand.

Though the Mitterrand scandal has died down, the polemic over Jean Sarkozy threatened to snowball into a major political problem for his father in a country with high unemployment, especially among the young.

EPAD, as the organization is known, is a quasi-governmental agency that oversees real estate and administration in the La Defense complex where 150,000 people work. The French president has big ambitions for La Defense to become an even more important European financial center, and his son’s accession to a leadership position was part of the plan.