Silvio Berlusconi the end of April 2009, Berlusconi's wife Veronica Lario, who would divorce him several years later, wrote an open letter expressing her anger at Berlusconi's choice of young, attractive female candidates—some with little or no political experience—to represent the party in the 2009 European Parliament elections. Berlusconi demanded a public apology, claiming that for the third time his wife had "done this to me in the middle of an election campaign", and stated that there was little prospect of his marriage continuing. On 3 May, Lario announced she was filing for divorce. She claimed that Berlusconi had not attended his
Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy that it was not acceptable for France to receive on its territory a man that did not respect human rights. Foreign Affairs Ministry Bernard Kouchner supported her and did not meet Gaddafi. Nicolas Sarkozy was also much criticised at the beginning of 2008, with his divorce and then with his remarriage with singer and ex-model Carla Bruni in January 2008. Indeed, he appeared as over-mediatised and omnipresent, and criticism of hyperpresidency were common. In February 2008, at the annual Salon of Agriculture, Sarkozy declared "Casse toi pauv’con !" (which can be translated as "beat it, you poor twat"), to a