Sarkozy's Wife Gives Up Credit Card

PARIS — President Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, stopped using a government credit card, a government spokesman said after a newspaper reported that France's first lady, who has no official status, used it twice.

"Madame Sarkozy has decided to stop using her credit card," which she "used twice in 1 1/2 months for lunch invitations," spokesman Laurent Wauquiez told journalists at the end of the weekly cabinet meeting in Paris yesterday.

"Hundreds of state civil servants or figures with public responsibilities already have such a payment means, which is just a modern facility, and doesn't allow them to escape expenditure control," Mr. Wauquiez said. Bernadette Chirac, Cecilia's predecessor, had similar expenses, he said.

Satirical and investigative newspaper Le Canard Enchaine reported last week, citing the government, that Cecilia Sarkozy used her card twice for working lunches, paying 401 euros ($546).