My health is good, says Sarkozy

Sarkozy was released from hospital on Monday after he was rushed in following a fainting episode at the end of a 45-minute run in the midday sun in the park of Versailles on Sunday. The Elysee has said tests on the president’s heart were all normal.

Sarkozy, 54, briefly returned to work for the first time on Wednesday to chair a final cabinet meeting before the holidays. He said: “I want to tell France that my health is good. I was hit by fatigue and I now have to rest.”

The workaholic and fitness-fanatic president, said to have been on a strict diet and exercise regime, stressed that he and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, did not have to make many serious lifestyle changes.

He told journalists at the Elysee: “You know my wife and I never go out at night. We never go to dinners. As you know, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke cigarettes, even if I’m partial to the odd cigar from time to time.”

Sarkozy said there did not have to be “considerable structural changes” to his lifestyle as he did not live a life of excess. He likened his fainting episode to a car running out of fuel, saying it could happen to anyone and that he was a “human being”.

Sarkozy said that since he became interior minister in 2002, he had not had much “respite” and would now go for a few weeks of  “deserved” and  “calm” holiday. He promised to inform the public if he needed to go to hospital again.

Sarkozy is expected to depart on Thursday for three weeks’ holiday at his wife’s family’s vast retreat at Cap Negre on the Mediterranean coast.