Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says she and her husband are 'modest, simple folk'

French president is trying to re-style himself as man of the people in re-election bid, saying days of bling are behind him

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in Eygpt. Photograph: Khaled El Fiqi/EPA

Nicolas Sarkozy's millionaire wife, Carla Bruni, has sparked mirth among political opponents by insisting the couple are modest, simple folk. The French president, lagging in the polls behind the socialist frontrunner,François Hollande, has attempted to re-style himself as a man of the people, but is struggling to escape the perception that he is "President of the Rich", unpopular for his outlandish shows of bling and accused by the left of lavishing tax breaks on the wealthy while neglecting the concerns of everyday people.

Questioned over his ostentatious 2007 election victory celebrations at the Champs-Elysées restaurant, Fouquets, and on a billionaire businessman's yacht, Sarkozy this week blamed the breakdown of his second marriage to Cécilia Sarkozy. He said he had made the errors of judgment because his mind was on trying to save his marriage from "exploding". He added: "This time I've got a solid family."

Bruni, Sarkozy's third wife, who is increasingly present at political rallies and TV appearances, then expressed annoyance that her husband was questioned over a love of wealth, exclaiming to le Monde: "We're modest people."

The boast of humility from Bruni, an Italian-born multi-millionaire heiress who at the height of her supermodel fame made £4.7m a year, caused eyebrows to be raised among political journalists and those on the political left. After marrying the president, Bruni posed for Vanity Fair in a haute-couture ball-gown on the Elysée palace roof, but the couple prefer to live in her vast mansion in a gated community in the west of Paris.

The interior minister, Claude Guéant, then stepped in, saying Sarkozy lived a life of "extreme austerity", that his only leisure activity was the occasional DVD and that he rarely had friends to dinner. In extracts from a new book on political partners published on Thursday, Bruni was said to be happiest sitting at home wearing a tracksuit. In a recent PR exercise to show how ordinary the presidential couple are, Bruni told a TV magazine she liked to sit on the sofa watching soap operas and the French equivalent of Pop Idol, despite Sarkozy vaunting a new-found love of watching DVDs of European arthouse films.

In his latest TV appearance, Sarkozy, who is hoping to kick-start his re-election campaign with a vast rally on the edge of Paris on Sunday, said being "candidate of the people" didn't mean trying to make people believe you lived their life. He said it wasn't about "putting on a cap or playing the accordion" but talking the "language" of the people.

Bruni's high-profile presence on the campaign trail has thrown the role of French first lady back into the spotlight.

Valérie Trierweiler, the journalist partner of Hollande, took to her Twitter account to vent her anger at her employer, the magazine Paris Match, for not alerting her that it was running a front cover and long report entitled "Valérie: François Hollande's charming asset". She tweeted: "Bravo to Paris Match for its sexism on this day of women's rights" – a reference to international women's day. The magazine replied on Twitter that it hadn't consulted her on the cover in order maintain journalistic independence.

Hollande, who has four children with the former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal, met Trierweiler during her decades as a political journalist covering the Socialist party. Trierweiler, who has an office in Hollande's campaign headquarters and is present in the audience at his rallies, has given up political journalism for the duration of the campaign and no longer takes part in decision-making meetings at Paris Match. But she continues to write on the arts and fronts a culture show on a cable TV channel which is owned by the billionaire Vincent Bolloré. The same businessman also owned the yacht Sarkozy famously borrowed for his flashy holidays, and the president recently tried to deflect criticism from himself by raising the issue of Trierweiler working for the Bolloré group. She shot back on Twitter that Sarkozy didn't know what an independent journalist was. Hollande said Sarkozy's targeting of his partner in the campaign was "inelegant".

A Paris Match poll on Thursday found that Hollande and Trierweiler were France's preferred presidential couple, with 40%, ahead of the Sarkozys on 26%.