Row over a workers' statue to be modelled on the French first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Australian News - French president Nicolas Sarkozy discovered the downside of having a glamorous wife yesterday as a row blew up over a plan to spend $A50,000 of taxpayers' money on a statue of her.

The two-metre high representation of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was the brainchild of a mayor who is a member of Mr Sarkozy's centre-right Union for a Popular Movement. But it caused an embarrassing controversy for Mr Sarkozy just as he prepares to launch his campaign to win a second term of office.

His efforts to show that he is in touch with working-class voters are unlikely to be helped by the revelation that his wife is to be immortalised in bronze. The statue is to be put up in Nogent-sur-Marne outside Paris at a cost of euros 81,000 ($A100,000), half of which will be met by Cogedim, a property developer, and half by council funds.

Created by Elisabeth Cibot, the sculpture will show the Italian-born supermodel-turned-singer in factory overalls, not the Chanel haute couture for which she is better known. The work is intended as a homage to the women, mainly Italian, who worked in a factory that produced feathers for French industry. The statue will give a "physical existence to the memory of the people of Nogent", said Jacques Martin, the Mayor.

A spokesman for Cogedim said that the town council had "asked the First Lady, who took part in a photo shoot so that the sculptress could produce a true likeness".

However, critics were indignant that the wealthy Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy, 44, was to represent factory staff.

William Geib, a Socialist councillor, described the project as grotesque and said that it was an insult to the Italian workers to give them the face of an ultra-rich person.

"I've nothing against Carla Bruni-Sarkozy but she does not represent the working class," he said. Even members of Mr Sarkozy's coalition were aghast at the statue, which is to be inaugurated in May during, or shortly after, the second round of the election.

Michel Gilles, a centre-right councillor, denounced the plan as a "political trick by the Mayor".

As the row gained momentum, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy sought to distance herself from the statue. Her spokeswoman said: "It's her former profession . . . she is often asked and she often says yes, and always on a voluntary basis. Carla's not Joan of Arc or General Charles de Gaulle. It's a great shame if someone is trying to get free publicity on her back."