Sarkozy selects short people to look taller

Updated on: 08 September,2009 08:14 AM IST |
Agencies |

Video clip of woman in Normandy making the claim is a hit on Internet, but president's office rubbishes it

Video clip of woman in Normandy making the claim is a hit on Internet, but president's office rubbishes it

The claim was made by a factory worker in Normandy who said she was chosen to stand next to Sarkozy when he visited the plant last Thursday because she was shorter than him.

Sensation

A video clip, in which the tiny Norman woman says that she was selected to stand behind Sarkozy during an 'impromptu' factory visit last week, has become an overnight sensation on the French-language Internet.

The long and short of it: French President Nicolas Sarkozy is five feet five inches tall and shorter than his wife Carla Bruni by four inches

News broadcast on TV channels across France showed the people selected for the purpose as revealing that they were chosen for being the shortest members of the Faurecia workforce, and made to stand near Sarkozy when he delivered his speech on the car industry.

But Sarkozy's office has described the claim as "totally preposterous and grotesque".

This is not the first time Sarkozy has "tried to look taller" than his actual height, for he was also spotted using a footstool while delivering a speech alongside the taller Gordon Brown and Barack Obama on a Normandy D-Day beach in June.

Do you know?

At 5 feet 5 inches, Sarkozy is one of the world's shortest heads of state only slightly taller than North Korea's Kim Jong-Il and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom are 5 feet, 3 inches tall.

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