Loan Adviser

Son of Sarkozy resigned to lead public agency EPAD

I will be candidate for the post of administrator of the EPAD but if elected I will not aspire to the presidency, said the son of the President to the television channel France 2.

No I want a victory that involves the weight of such suspicion. do not accept that the suspicion of favoritism or special privilege for treatment can weigh, said Jean Sarkozy, second-year student of law.

Jean Sarkozy's candidacy to become president of the EPAD agency was denounced as an act of nepotism by politicians from the opposition and caused widespread nervousness even among government supporters, who feared repercussions from angry voters.

Critics say Sarkozy's son, who still has not graduated from college, was too inexperienced to manage the development of the district of La Defense, which is 10 percent domestic product France's gross.

Jean Sarkozy's retirement is a blow to his father, who devoted part of his political capital to defend the nomination of offspring, and clearly did not expect a hostile reaction the ambitions of his precocious son.

La Defense is a vast area of skyscrapers and corporate headquarters to the western outskirts of Paris which was created by former President Charles de Gaulle in 1958 and is rival London as Europe's main financial center.

Jean, the second son of first marriage for Sarkozy, entered politics last year when he was elected councilor of a wealthy district of Paris where his father built his own political career.

Should be elected to the board of the EPAD on Friday for his right-wing political allies and declared to be presented to the president when the post remain vacant in December .

(Repot Gregory Blachier, Elizabeth Pineau, Emile Picy and Crispian Balmer, editing by the editors of Madrid, editing by Mark Trevelyan)