Photo op at supermarket buys embarrassment for French ministers

It was apparently just a little summertime spinning with the aid of a grocery chain,but Luc Chatel,the Education Minister and government spokesman....

It was apparently just a little summertime spinning with the aid of a grocery chain,but Luc Chatel,the Education Minister and government spokesman,found himself in some hot water over a supposedly staged visit to a quiet supermarket on Monday.

Journalists accompanying Chatel and Hervé Novelli,the Secretary of State for Commerce,on a trip to an Intermarché supermarket in Villeneuve-le-Roi,southeast of Paris,became suspicious when the aisles were suddenly filled with well-dressed,articulate women eager to praise a government freeze on the price of some school supplies before the new school year began.

One of the women was Virginie Meyniel,a local politician allied with the governing centre-right party,who said she just happened to be in the store and also happens to help oversee schools for her town,Vulaines-sur-Seine,30 miles away.

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The radio station France Inter raised questions,and the newspaper Libération had a detailed article on Wednesday headlined,Supercherie au Supermarché,or Hoax at the Supermarket. It described how some of the women left the store together in a car after the minister left,without buying anything and leaving their school supplies in shopping baskets.

The journalists said that the store was empty a half-hour before the officials arrived,and that 15 minutes before they came about a dozen women entered the store together.

A TV reporter told Libération that the women grabbed some items in the school supplies aisle,but instead of continuing their shopping,they stayed there,waiting like a row of onions.

On Wednesday afternoon,Intermarché issued a statement saying that the management of Intermarché took the initiative to invite a certain number of workers for the ministers visit. In the statement,Intermarché apologised for the episode,saying that it took full responsibility and that the ministers were not involved.

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Chatel said on Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the plan.

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