Setback for Sarkozy as spokesman quits mayor race

By Francois Murphy

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered fresh embarrassment on Monday when his spokesman withdrew a bid to become mayor of Sarkozy's former stronghold despite being parachuted there by the president himself.

Sarkozy anointed spokesman David Martinon as his centre-right party's official candidate for mayor in the chic Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, which Sarkozy himself ran for years before becoming president last year.

But Martinon, who is seen as close to Sarkozy's ex-wife Cecilia, has never won elected office before and he does not live in Neuilly, which has angered many of its residents.

In an apparent reaction to Martinon's relatively poor poll performance ahead of what should have been a shoo-in at next month's municipal election, supporters including Sarkozy's own son withdrew their support for Martinon and set up a rival bid.

"The conditions are no longer in place for me to lead the municipal campaign in Neuilly," Martinon told reporters in the Paris suburb, adding: "I am pulling out."

Martinon said he had offered to resign from his post as presidential spokesman but Sarkozy had refused. Sarkozy declined to comment on Martinon on Monday during a trip to French Guyana.

The debacle highlights squabbling on the right and is another setback for Sarkozy, whose approval rating has tumbled over his public romance with ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, whom he married on February 2, and anger over the rising cost of living.

Two monthly opinion polls released on Monday found Sarkozy's approval rating had fallen to its lowest point since he was elected nine months ago. Pollster IPSOS said it had fallen 10 points to 39 percent, while rival CSA said it had dropped six points to 42 percent.

Both were conducted after Sarkozy got married and before Martinon's supporters dropped him.

SOAP OPERA MEETS ROYAL COURT

Opposition politicians and political commentators have likened Sarkozy's decision to hand-pick Martinon before apparently dropping him to a soap opera. Some compare it to the personal politics of the royal court in pre-revolutionary times.

"We could laugh about it, and there's plenty to laugh about. A presidential spokesman designated by Nicolas Sarkozy, a plot, a family intrigue," Socialist leader Francois Hollande said.

Centrist Francois Bayrou, who came third in last year's presidential vote, also jumped on the incident.

"One is a little stunned by these daily unexpected developments of a sort of soap opera in which the real subject is the court -- what is happening in the court?" Bayrou told France Inter radio.

The bad press for Sarkozy could also have an impact on the municipal elections on March 9 and 16, in which some 36,000 mayors in towns and villages across France will be elected.