Paris, July 29 (DPA) French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday that his recent collapse while jogging was just a matter of running out of gas.
“I ran out of gas, the way everyone one does,” Sarkozy told journalists at the Elysee Palace after a meeting of his cabinet.
On Sunday, the 54-year-old Sarkozy collapsed while jogging near his residence in Versailles and was taken to hospital, where he was kept overnight for observation.
“I’m in good health, but I have to rest,” he said Wednesday, and promised to inform the French people whenever he is hospitalised.
Contradictory information leaked to the press by Sarkozy’s advisers during the hospitalisation had raised suspicions that the incident was more serious than was described.
Early reports spoke of a vasovagal syncope, which is the most common type of fainting, while a spokesman for Sarkozy’s UMP party said he had suffered a “cardiac accident”. Finally, the collapse was defined by doctors as a consequence of exhaustion.
Like most other French residents, Sarkozy will spend the next three weeks on holiday. He will be staying at the mansion belonging to the family of his wife, singer Carla Bruni, in Cap Negre on the western Riviera.
