Under pressure: An exhausted-looking Carla Bruni outside a Paris polling station yesterdayLooking exhausted and with a fixed smile on her face, Carla Bruni cut a forlorn figure in Paris yesterday.
In a show of unity, she clasped her husband Nicolas Sarkozy's hand as she accompanied him to a polling station for local elections.
But her appearance alongside Mr Sarkozy at the polling booths was unable to improve his party's showing.
Early polls suggest that her husband's governing UMP party is being trounced by the Socialists in the regional elections.
And the strain on her face betrayed the pressure of last week's widespread claims that both she and the French president are having affairs.
Strain: Sarkozy and his wife walk to the polling station. Rumours surfaced last week that they are both having affairsThe 43-year-old model and singer had applied a heavy layer of makeup, but her eyes looked tired and her hair lifeless.
Internet allegations said that Miss Bruni was involved with a musician while the 55-year-old president was romancing a politicians 15 years his junior.
Exhausted: Carla Bruni's eyes look swollen and red in Paris, and right the fresh-faced look she showed off in Madrid last April Mr Sarkozy, who has roundly denied the rumours, faced further embarrassment yesterday after claims that David Cameron had likened him to a dwarf.
The dispute centres on a comment Mr Cameron allegedly made last September about 'hidden dwarfs' while showing an interviewer a photo of himself and Mr Sarkozy, who at 5ft 5in is seven inches shorter than the 6ft Tory leader.
Show of unity: The President grasps his wife's hand as they go to vote in the French regional elections
Three days later George Osborne, who is 5ft 11in, inflamed tensions by describing a box placed beneath a lectern at a conference as a 'Sarkozy box', before bursting into giggles. The moment is captured in a YouTube video.The two remarks led the French to raise the matter with the British Government.
A diplomatic source told the Mail: 'A senior French official had a word with a British diplomat in Paris.
'He was told the Tory comments had got back to Sarkozy and they were seen as not the done thing.
'It wasn't a formal protest, but it was a shot across the bows.'
The Tories denied that Mr Cameron had ever made disparaging comments about Mr Sarkozy, accusing Labour of spreading the rumour to the French in the first place.
'David never made a joke about a hidden dwarf and nor have the French complained. It is Labour-concocted rubbish,' a source said.
You've got to hand it to Sarkozy for trying...
Bad sign? Desperate to put on a show of unity, Sark makes to hold hands with Carla outside polling station but despite many efforts, they just can't get it rightsource: dailymail
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