Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended his son’s bid to take over the planning board of France’s biggest business district, calling criticism of the 23- year-old law student “groundless.”

“Everything that provides groundless, excessive fodder against someone is never good,” Sarkozy told reporters today in Paris when asked about his son, Jean Sarkozy.

The younger Sarkozy is seeking the presidency of EPAD, which decides real-estate, transport and housing projects in the La Defense neighborhood. Companies including oil company Total SA, Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank by market value, and Areva SA, the world’s biggest builder of nuclear reactors, are based in the district on Paris’s western edge.

Francois Bayrou, head of the centrist Democratic Movement party, told Le Monde that Jean Sarkozy “has no skills to run” the body that oversees development at La Defense and is “one of the most powerful” urban planning organizations in Europe.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 13, 2009 07:16 EDT