“Let them eat pain au chocolat” may not have quite the ring of “Let them eat cake”, but French presidential hopeful Jean-François Copé has nevertheless found himself compared to Marie Antoinette after admitting he had no idea about the cost of the French breakfast staple.

Asked by a listener of French radio station Europe 1 if he knew the price of the pastries, which usually sell for between £1.15 and £2.10, Copé said: “I have no idea but … I think it must be around 10 or 15 centimes”.

The comments recalled the infamous quote often attributed, some say unfairly, to the last French queen, when told that peasants were revolting because they had no bread.

Copé’s faux-pas elicited a particularly shocked “Ohhhh laaaaa” from the presenter, who nudged Copé to explain: “I admit I don’t buy them very often because … you have to be a little careful because of the calories.”

The member of France’s rightwing Les Républicains party later tweeted: “I confess to being very careful about my figure ... so to tell you the truth I haven’t eaten ‘chocolatines’ for a long time!”, alongside a picture of fruit and vegetables.”

Jean-François Copé (@jf_cope) J'avoue être très soucieux de ma ligne ... Donc pour dire vrai j'ai arrêté les "chocolatines" depuis longtemps ! #E1Copé pic.twitter.com/4tKZXO8g7c

But the tweet did little to stem the barrage of criticism. The French YouTube comedian Rémi Gaillard replied: “You’d be better confessing that you don’t give a damn about the real lives of French people.”



Others pointed out that it was especially concerning that Copé used to be the nation’s finance minister.

Rémi Gaillard (@nqtv) Bonjour @jf_cope ce serait quand même mieux d'avouer que vous en avez rien à foutre de la vraie vie des français. #Cope

This is not the first time Copé has been left with flaky pastry down the front of his shirt. In a 2012 meeting in the south-eastern town of Draguignan, the politician said there were areas where parents, coming home from work, would learn that their son had had his pain au chocolat torn out of his hands by “yobs who explained to him that one doesn’t eat during ramadan”. The comment inspired one wit to call him “Le Pen au chocolat”, after the far-right politician Marine Le Pen, who is also running for president in 2017.



The story has created a cornucopia of pastry-themed stories, including an article in Le Figaro about where to find the best pain au chocolate in Paris, as well as inspiring the hashtag #PainAuChocolat on Twitter.

Jean-François Copé (@jf_cope) Il est des quartiers où les enfants ne peuvent pas manger leur pain au chocolat car c'est le ramadan #Draguignan http://t.co/aPUbjPCE

Copé is standing in the centre-right primary to select a candidate for next year’s presidential election. He is a former budget minister who once taught economy and local finances at the renowned Sciences Po university in Paris. A friend of David Cameron and William Hague, he has a history of appropriating far-right topics, and was behind France’s 2011 ban on the niqab and full-face coverings in public places.

Copé was dubbed Sarkozilla when Nicolas Sarkozy was French president, a nod to his keen political ambition. He will run against Sarkozy again in the scrap for his party’s 2017 nomination.



