The FINANCIAL — French president Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to leave hospital and head home on July 27 after falling ill while jogging near his weekend retreat on the grounds of the Chateau de Versailles.
Reuters reported that the 54-year-old suffered a dizzy spell while jogging in the park of the Chateau of Versailles on Sunday, and had to lie down before being flown by helicopter to the Val-de-Grace military hospital in Paris. He did not lose consciousness. "The news from medical staff is good, he's leaving today, which proves that it's fine," Patrick Devedjian, the minister on charge of France's fiscal recovery plan, told French radio RTL on July 27.
A presidential aide said the French leader — who took office in May 2007 — was suffering from a "minor" problem related to his vagus nerve, which helps the body regulate the heart rate, according to AFP report. The French leader is scheduled to leave the Val de Grace Hospital later on July 27.
"He's fine. He's hungry. He's complaining. Everything's going well," lawmaker and Sarkozy ally Patrick Balkany told RTL after talking to Gueant and first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. "Carla reassured us straight away… it's a passing thing, as the same source reported. The president is going to have to take more care, work a little less hard and eat a little bit more," he added, blaming the incident on Sarkozy's recent efforts to lose weight. "Recently the president has looked very honed — he looks more like a Tour de France rider than a president," he joked.
On July 27, however, Sarkozy will be replaced by Finance Minister Christine Lagarde at a meeting with representatives of French banks, according to his agenda. French media reported that a scheduled trip on July 28 to Mont Saint Michel, a Gothic abbey perched on a rocky outcrop off the coast of Normandy, will be scrapped, though the trip still appeared on Sarkozy's online agenda on July 27, as informs AP.
The Elysee Palace published a health bulletin early this month saying Sarkozy had undergone routine cardiovascular and other tests and was found to be in normal health, The Washington Post gave information. About six months after taking office in May 2007, Sarkozy was briefly hospitalized with a throat infection. That incident was not revealed at the time, despite a pledge from Sarkozy to keep the French public informed on his health. But it was reported in a book and later confirmed by his spokesmen.
Presidential health has long been a delicate subject in France. Presidents Georges Pompidou in the 1970s and François Mitterrand in the 1990s concealed serious cancer problems for months, recognizing their illnesses only when they became obvious, the same source’s report says.
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