TV grilling for Sarkozy tonight
Political rivals say TF1's evening with the president gives him too much prominence ahead of the regional elections
PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy is to face a live TV grilling from 11 members of the French public tonight in a series of programmes that has angered opposition parties.
He will be interviewed for about 10 minutes on TF1's evening news from 20.00 and will then appear in a live one-hour debate with 11 viewers chosen by the production team.
Presenter Jean-Pierre Pernaut, who will be chairing the debate, said six men and five women had been chosen to "speak of their problems". Five of them are from Paris, and the other six from elsewhere in France.
TF1 says the programme is inspired by the television debates organised in the run-up to the 2007 presidential elections, where Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal faced questions from 100 audience members.
The channel insists that Sarkozy has no idea beforehand what issues he will be asked about. The president's answers will be analysed by a group of political commentators from 22.00.
Opposition leaders have criticised the move, which comes just two months before the regional elections.
Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon said his party had yet to be approached with a similar offer. Socialist MEP Vincent Peillon attacked the "servitude" of TF1's management in a comment piece for Le Monde this weekend.
Mouvement Démocratique party president François Bayrou said he was concerned by the "very close co-operation between the Elysée and a TV channel".
TF1 chief executive Martin Bouygues is a close friend of the president and was a witness at his marriage to second wife Cécilia in 1998.
The Elysée said in a statement: "The president wants to do on television what he does every week around the country."
According to polls by Sofres, Sarkozy's popularity is at an all-time low of 32% - down from 63% when he was elected president in June 2007.
