Sarkozy wins lawsuit against Ryanair

Airline used photo of Sarkozy and wife without permission for an advertisement

PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy and France’s new first lady Carla Bruni on Tuesday won a lawsuit filed against budget airline Ryanair for featuring a photo of their couple in an ad campaign.

The Paris court ordered Ryanair to pay Bruni 60,000 euros ($90,000) in damages, well short of the 5,00,000 euros the former supermodel-turned-pop star was seeking for the unauthorised use of her image. Sarkozy was awarded a symbolic sum of one euro in damages, as he had requested.

The advertisement, printed last week, featured a photograph of the couple smiling dreamily while a caption next to Bruni reads “With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding.”

The 53-year-old Sarkozy’s highly-publicised whirlwind romance with the 40-year-old Bruni was clinched by their wedding last weekend.

Sarkozy’s popularity has plunged in a new poll. With Sarkozy at the centre of a mew media blitz surrounding his marriage to Carla Bruni, an LH2 poll released for Liberation newspaper said 55 per cent had a negative opinion of Sarkozy.