Read exclusive comment direct from Charles Bremner in France

President Sarkozy enjoyed a cordial first audience with Pope Benedict XVI yesterday, but there was no sign of his new Italian-born girlfriend, the model and singer Carla Bruni.

Despite speculation that she would be the President’s Roman consort, Ms Bruni, 39, stayed in Paris to face growing criticism from media and politicians over the way that the President has staged-managed his new romance.

This included sniping over Ms Bruni’s formidable roll call of past lovers, who range from Sir Mick Jagger to Laurent Fabius, a former Socialist Prime Minister. Le Point news magazine said that she was notorious as a “poisonous, unbearable . . . praying mantis”. Le Monde said that Mr Sarkozy was taking the French for fools by “staging Desperate Housewives” at the Élysée Palace. “He is turning the country into a magnificent toy for a child king,” it said.

Speaking in French, the Pope appeared to hit it off with the twice-divorced President, who describes himself as a nonpractising Catholic. There was little sign of the Vatican’s well-known displeasure over French policies and those of Mr Sarkozy in particular. These include same-sex civil unions, the ban on religious symbols in schools, a crackdown on immigration and a push for the Sunday opening of shops. Mr Sarkozy was responsible for three of the four.

The French leader and the Pope also discussed Europe, the Middle East, the problems of Africa and the drama of hostages, a joint communiqué said. This was a reference to Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate with French/ Colombian nationality, who has been held for six years by guerrillas.

Mr Sarkozy said that he was moved by his encounter with the Pope. He complimented the German-born Benedict on his remarkable French and asked him where he had learnt it. “At school,” the pontiff replied. Mr Sarkozy was made Canon at the Basilica of St John Lateran, an honorary title that has been bestowed on generations of French leaders.

Mr Sarkozy raised eyebrows at home by taking to Rome a typically showbiz delegation. This included Jean-Marie Bigard, a stand-up comedian who specialises in coarse humour but professes strong Catholic faith. Also in the group was Guy Gilbert, a motorcycling, leather-jacketed celebrity priest who is known as “the Father of the Hooligans”.

French officials said that the President had never intended to take Ms Bruni to Rome, let alone the Vatican, which would take a dim view of a head of state turning up with a girlfriend. Italian newspapers, which have outdone the French in the Bruni frenzy, said that she had not wanted to embarrass Mr Sarkozy. According to the latest rumour, the pair will cruise the Nile together after Christmas.

As glossy magazines pumped out more pictures of the public debut of Mr Sarkozy and Ms Bruni at Disneyland Paris last Saturday, grumbles over Mr Sarkozy’s conduct increased. Libération, a left-wing daily, said that the President risked turning France into a laughing stock like the Italy of the businessman Silvio Berlusconi, the former Prime Minister.

Staff at Paris Match, the venerable picture weekly, rebelled against what they called the magazine’s excessive obedience to the President. They complained that this week it refused to allow any journalistic text to accompany 16 pages plus a cover of photographs devoted to Mr Sarkozy at work and play – including a bedroom scene. The magazine, owned by a friend of the President, also scrapped an article that catalogued Ms Bruni’s prolific past, the staff said.

To add insult to injury, at a time of staff cuts, the magazine had also recruited Anne Fulda, a journalist who in 2005 was Mr Sarkozy’s last-known mistress, its journalists’ union said.

While attention was focused on Ms Bruni, a Paris court awarded £8,000 damages to Laurence Ferrari, a tele-vision presenter, who sued Closer, a magazine, over a report that she had enjoyed a fling with the President since his divorce in October.

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