Next French prez could live in a flat, not at the Elysee

PARIS: France’s next president could live in a Paris apartment rather than the official Elysee Palace, walk to work every day and draw from his experience in organising music festivals when setting out policies.

Socialist Jack Lang said be would remain a Frenchman like any other if he was elected next year, vowing to add a more modest touch to what had become a “sacrilegious” post under conservative President Jacques Chirac.

“I will live like a normal citizen,” said Lang, sitting in his large office by the Place des Vosges square, one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Paris, where the former culture minister also has an apartment.

“I will not live in the Elysee Palace. I will stay at my place. The president must be accessible. He should lead a simple life,” he said.

Lang earned himself a name in France for creating Paris’ annual Fete de la Musique festival in 1982.

In the 1980s, he was culture minister when the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand undertook in his ‘’Grands Travaux’’ of major urban works, including the celebrated glass pyramids at the historic Louvre museum.

The 66-year-old Lang is one of around half a dozen so-called Socialist “elephants”— senior male presidential hopefuls who have defended their position in the party for decades, but who have recently been eclipsed by a female relative newcomer.  A recent Ifop survey showed Lang has little support among voters.

He said opinion surveys should be read with caution. “My chances aren’t slim,” he said.