French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in Egypt with new girlfriend Carla Bruni, came under attack back home on Thursday for flying on his Christmas holiday aboard the private jet of a billionaire businessman.

Opposition political parties accused the President of compromising his office, and asked what the plastics-to-media magnate Vincent Bollore can expect in return for his generosity.

“As soon as the President makes himself dependent on the favours of billionaires, inevitably there will be qui pro quos and we would like to know what they are,” said Socialist Party deputy Arnaud Montebourg.
“This mixing of private and public interests damages the impartiality of the state,” he said.

The Communist Party said it was “unseemly that the representative of the French people should behave like a flash billionaire every time he goes on holiday. From the Christmas festivities to the summer vacation, any time is now a good time for the President’s indiscretions.”

After his election in May, Sarkozy triggered a similar row when he spent several days on Bollore’s private yacht off Malta.

The businessman denies seeking to influence the President, noting that less than one per cent of his holding company’s turnover comes from government contracts.