Officials sacked after Sarkozy hears jeers

To jeer President Nicolas Sarkozy has become a serious offence, punishable by the sacking of any official who allows the boos to reach the presidential ears. The police chief and the most senior national government official in the Manche département (county) of lower Normandy have been fired in successive days, to the fury of local politicians, including members of M. Sarkozy's own party.

The officials' offence was to fail to shield the President from the boos and whistles of protesters when he made a speech in the town of Saint-Lô earlier this month. Their dismissal has fuelled a debate about President Sarkozy's increasingly autocratic behaviour. Two high-profile ministers from ethnic minorities, appointed by M. Sarkozy to much fanfare in 2007, have been placed in the political deep-freeze by the President in recent weeks. Last year he ordered the firing of a successful Corsican police chief after nationalist protesters had invaded the garden of his friend, the actor Christian Clavier.

The latest victims of presidential pique are two recently-appointed officials who had overall responsibility for public order when M. Sarkozy visited lower Normandy to speak on education reform on 12 January. About 3,000 demonstrators protested. M. Sarkozy was furious the demonstrators had been allowed to come so near that he could hear them faintly.

He was heard to say at the time: "Quel con, ce préfet." (What an arsehole, this prefect is.) A prefect is a governor appointed by the state to oversee the administration of each département. On Thursday, it was announced that the prefect of the Manche département, Jean Charbonniaud, was being moved to another job.

Yesterday it emerged that the director of police in the Manche, Philippe Bourgade, had also been told to "look for another post". M. Bourgade, less than two years into his job, was France's most successful provincial police chief according to a system of statistics M. Sarkozy introduced. Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie admitted the officials were fired for "making arrangements which failed to meet the importance of a situation".

The sackings have been greeted with unusual fury by senior local members of M. Sarkozy's centre-right party, the UMP. "It is lamentable if representatives of the state are being treated like Kleenex. It's scandalous," said Jean-François Le Grand, UMP head of the Manche county council.

The fired police chief, M. Bourgade, 59, said: "What was so terrible about what happened? The President heard a few whistles, that's all."