Metro bans sarky Sarko posters

POSTERS for a Paris theatre production satirising the Bettencourt affair have been banned from Metro stations because they could be defamatory.

The posters show the l’Oréal heiress running Sound of Music-style with a basket showing the heads of her lawyer, Patrice de Maistre, President Sarkozy, employment minister Eric Woerth and her friend François-Marie Banier .

Médias Transports, the company responsible for putting adverts in the RATP’s Metro and RER stations, says that it could be defamatory to link the politicians with de Maistre and Banier, who are both in the middle of a court action.

The posters advertise the Théâtre des Deux Anes’ production of the Banier de Crabes , a satire on the Bettencourt affair and the claims of links to political funding.

They were banned because they were of a “defamatory nature, going beyond humour and caricature, and questioning the reputation of the two government members by linking them with two people facing judicial investigation”.

Publicity for the show promises “the Légion d’Honneur, envelopes stuffed with cash, a paradise island and Swiss bank accounts; after Plus Belle la Vie [a soap opera] we have the new French success story: the Bettencourt Affair”.