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French press sniff fake shoppers at minister's visit

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-19 21:35

PARIS: A French supermarket chain said on Wednesday it arranged for some of its workers to be present at a visit by ministers to one of its shops which turned into a publicity nightmare for the politicians.

Journalists accompanying Education Minister Luc Chatel and Commerce Minister Herve Novelli on a supermarket visit in a town southeast of Paris accused the ministers of using fake shoppers when a group of well-dressed women suddenly flooded the empty aisles.

French Education Minister Luc Chatel (L) and Commerce Minister Herve Novelli are shown in this combined photo. [Agencies]

In front of television cameras the women then praised the government-backed price freeze of certain stationery supplies before the start of the new school year, journalists said.

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"The management of Intermarche took the initiative to invite a certain number of workers for the ministers' visit," the store said in a statement issued in response to the stories.

It said Chatel and Novelli had nothing to do with this plan.

Ministerial publicity stunts are not uncommon in France. In 1990 then Tourism Minister Olivier Stirn was forced to resign after revelations that a public question-and-answer session had been bolstered by paid supporters.

One of the women at the Villeneuve-le-Roi supermarket on Wednesday was Virginie Meyniel, a local politician for the ruling UMP party of which Chatel is also a member.

"Maybe Virginie Meyniel was there by coincidence, but you could doubt it," said Celia Quilleret, a journalist for radio France Info.

Meyniel told Quilleret she just happened to be in the supermarket, which was mostly empty, as is usual on a quiet morning in August. Quilleret said the women had been waiting by the stationery shelves before the ministers' arrival.

Left-wing newspaper Liberation said journalists had seen some of the women who met the ministers leave in a shared car, without buying anything.

A spokeswoman for Luc Chatel declined to comment and said the department was preparing a response. The public relations service for the UMP party said it could not immediately comment.