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Carla Bruni-Sarkozy saves sex tourist minister Frédéric Mitterrand
The influence of France’s first lady has halted the sacking of a minister – but for how long
Matthew Campbell in Paris
Image :1 of 2
The reluctance of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, to sack a gay minister with a past as a “sex tourist” in Thailand will certainly please Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, his wife.
She had suggested appointing Frédéric Mitterrand, a friend, as culture minister and the government’s support for him, despite his confession to having paid boys for sex, is partly a sign of Sarkozy’s eagerness not to offend his first lady.
“She has great power and influence,” said Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam, a senator in Sarkozy’s centre-right party, referring to the Italian-born singer and former model. “It’s obvious she is defending Mitterrand. But it puts the president in a difficult situation. He is offending many of his supporters.”
L’affaire Mitterrand began when the nephew of the last Socialist president flew to the defence of Roman Polanski, the Polish film director, over child sex charges, only to face such accusations himself in connection with a memoir published in 2005.
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Yesterday it emerged that he had also offered to help rehabilitate two teenage brothers convicted earlier this year of raping a 16-year-old girl on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion. One was the son of his make-up artist when he worked as a television presenter. He may bitterly regret having written “I got into the habit of paying for boys” in his book, The Bad Life.
The reaction when passages were read out on television last week not only laid bare Bruni-Sarkozy’s clout in the court of “King Sarko”; it also highlighted the chasm between the French and the Anglo-Saxons.
In Britain it would be unthinkable for anyone known to have paid boys for sex to land a minister’s job. France takes a more tolerant view and Mitterrand has been allowed to keep his job, protesting that he had sex with consenting adults rather than the “kids” he described in his book. He is not the only one to have benefited from the country’s indulgence of aesthetes and thinkers.
From Louis Althusser, the French Marxist philosopher who strangled his wife in 1980 but avoided prison, to Cesare Battisti, the Italian writer who was convicted in Italy on terrorism charges but who went on to become a literary star in Paris, the French have often applied different criteria to intellectuals and artists.
The public’s patience may be wearing thin, however, and there are signs that Sarkozy may end up paying dearly.
Already the scandal has prompted grumbling among his allies over Bruni-Sarkozy’s role and what had, until now, been regarded as a brilliant presidential strategy to undermine the Socialist opposition by offering top jobs to its heroes and to openly gay politicians or members of racial minorities.
The pursuit of diversity appeared to founder this year when Sarkozy sacked Rachida Dati, the first Arab minister and icon of diversity, after complaints of incompetence.
Appointing a Mitterrand to such a high-profile job was just as courageous for a president who had promised “rupture” with the bad old ways of the past. Mitterrand, 62, claimed he had asked Sarkozy if he thought the book would be “an obstacle”. The president had replied: “Not at all. I’ve read it. It’s a very good book.”
He may not think quite so highly of it today. According to a poll conducted last week his approval rating has dropped by five points to 41% in a month. The largest fall (16%) was among the over 65-year-olds, the conservative voters Sarkozy relied on to win power in 2007.
He hopes, no doubt, that the fuss will soon fade but this seems unlikely. Inaugurating an art exhibition in Bordeaux yesterday, Mitterrand was jeered by protesters with prams and posters saying, “Don’t touch our children.” Only a quarter of viewers found Mitterrand convincing as he responded with indignation and anger to a grilling by a female interviewer on television on Thursday about his activities in the brothels of Thailand.
When asked how he was sure he had never paid for sex with a minor, the minister prompted scepticism by replying that he could distinguish between a youth and a “40-year-old boxer”.
Calling for his resignation, Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Front, quoted a paragraph in which he wrote: “The abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire.”
The book was critically acclaimed in its day and Mitterrand, a gentle soul who often rides a scooter to work and has never hidden his homosexuality, was praised for his honesty.
It exploded in his face only because he had stirred anger by rushing to the defence of Polanski, who is fighting extradition from Switzerland to the United States, from where he fled after admitting a sex offence with a girl of 13 in 1977.
Mitterrand was not the only French minister to express outrage at the arrest of Polanski. Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister, said the director had committed nothing more than a “youthful error”. Various pillars of the cultural elite signed a petition calling for his release.
“Being an artist or intellectual is considered a privilege in France,” explained Christian Viviani, a French film professor, suggesting that prominent French artists and intellectuals believe their work allows them some moral leeway. Politicians seem more than happy to indulge that belief: Jack Lang, a culture minister appointed by President François Mitterrand, was one of the most outspoken supporters of Bertrand Cantat, a French rock star who bludgeoned his girlfriend, the actress Marie Trintignant, to death in a hotel room in Lithuania in 2003. He was released from jail in 2007 after serving only half his eight-year sentence.
Bruni-Sarkozy, for her part, managed to persuade her husband last year not to send Marina Petrella back to Italy where she is wanted on murder and terrorism charges.
The public appears to have little sympathy for Polanski: in one poll more than 70% said the film maker should face justice. Many letter writers have also condemned his defenders, especially after reminders of the contents of Mitterrand’s book.
From André Gide’s accounts of sex with young boys in Algeria in the 1920s to Michel Houellebecq’s novels, the subject of sexual tourism has often stirred controversy in France and is decried by the government. Except, it seems, when a minister is involved.
It emerged that Sarkozy himself was co-ordinating the defence of “Frédo”, as he is known to friends, advising him to “defend his honour” before the French people.
The government’s decision to rally around Mitterrand seemed to be based partly on the idea that his private life was being intruded upon, even if he had invited such scrutiny with his book.
The right to a private life has long been regarded as sacred by French politicians. A compliant press has seldom dared to puncture the taboo but in an age of instant communication and internet competition the ramparts are crumbling.
The French press showed little appetite for the Mitterrand story until film of Le Pen reading extracts from the book on various internet websites made it impossible to ignore.
For the Establishment it is a frightening revolution. “Do we really want a totally transparent society?” asked Laurent Joffrin, editor of Libération, the left-wing newspaper. “Do we really want a society of inquisition?”
For Garriaud-Maylam, a more basic principle is at stake. “I feel that ministers should set a good example,” she said. “Unfortunately, that is not the case here — far from it.”
Rise of Bruni’ s left-leaning friends
The embattled French culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, is one of several left-leaning friends of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the first lady, to have been drafted into the service of Nicolas Sarkozy.
An informal “kitchen cabinet” of left-wing advisers around the French president includes Raphaël Enthoven, one of her former lovers, and Marin Karmitz, a film producer and former Maoist who works with Mitterrand as a “cultural adviser”.
Enthoven, a philosophy professor, is the father of Aurélien, Bruni-Sarkozy’s eight-year-old son. In spite of their separation the two have remained friends and talk on the telephone most days. He is a regular guest at the Sakozys’ dining table.
Bruni-Sarkozy’s ability to attract such figures to the camp of Sarkozy, who was once reviled by the Parisian elite as uncultured, is a result of fratricidal bickering in the moribund Socialist party. Enthoven has torn up his membership card in disgust.
Karmitz, who often joins the first couple for cocktails, likes to say: “It is not me that has changed. It’s the left.”
The French media have christened these champagne Socialist deserters la gauche Carla – a variation of the “caviar left”. They are united in their disenchantment with the Socialists, who are unlikely to return to power, and admiration for the dynamic Sarkozy.
Bruni-Sarkozy’s influence extends well beyond the choice of advisers and ministers. Sarkozy has also taken to reading books and has shed weight under a strict regime of dieting and exercise, which was blamed for an illness he suffered while jogging in the summer.
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Is this the sophisticated European style to which we must all aspire?
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Only if you are desperate to prove nothing to nobodies.
October 11, 2009 12:50 AM BST on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Ower Heaton wrote:
Is this the sophisticated European style to which we must all aspire? France-Belgium, they both seem to be run by people with an unhealthy interest in children or by apologists for those people. I want no part of it.
The influence of France’s first lady has halted the sacking of a minister – but for how long
Matthew Campbell in Paris
- Nicolas Sarkozy, right, appears eager not to take actions that offend his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
Image :1 of 2 The reluctance of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, to sack a gay minister with a past as a “sex tourist” in Thailand will certainly please Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, his wife.
She had suggested appointing Frédéric Mitterrand, a friend, as culture minister and the government’s support for him, despite his confession to having paid boys for sex, is partly a sign of Sarkozy’s eagerness not to offend his first lady.
“She has great power and influence,” said Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam, a senator in Sarkozy’s centre-right party, referring to the Italian-born singer and former model. “It’s obvious she is defending Mitterrand. But it puts the president in a difficult situation. He is offending many of his supporters.”
L’affaire Mitterrand began when the nephew of the last Socialist president flew to the defence of Roman Polanski, the Polish film director, over child sex charges, only to face such accusations himself in connection with a memoir published in 2005.
function slideshowPopUp(url){pictureGalleryPopupPic(url);re turn false;}Related Links
Yesterday it emerged that he had also offered to help rehabilitate two teenage brothers convicted earlier this year of raping a 16-year-old girl on the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion. One was the son of his make-up artist when he worked as a television presenter. He may bitterly regret having written “I got into the habit of paying for boys” in his book, The Bad Life.
The reaction when passages were read out on television last week not only laid bare Bruni-Sarkozy’s clout in the court of “King Sarko”; it also highlighted the chasm between the French and the Anglo-Saxons.
In Britain it would be unthinkable for anyone known to have paid boys for sex to land a minister’s job. France takes a more tolerant view and Mitterrand has been allowed to keep his job, protesting that he had sex with consenting adults rather than the “kids” he described in his book. He is not the only one to have benefited from the country’s indulgence of aesthetes and thinkers.
From Louis Althusser, the French Marxist philosopher who strangled his wife in 1980 but avoided prison, to Cesare Battisti, the Italian writer who was convicted in Italy on terrorism charges but who went on to become a literary star in Paris, the French have often applied different criteria to intellectuals and artists.
The public’s patience may be wearing thin, however, and there are signs that Sarkozy may end up paying dearly.
Already the scandal has prompted grumbling among his allies over Bruni-Sarkozy’s role and what had, until now, been regarded as a brilliant presidential strategy to undermine the Socialist opposition by offering top jobs to its heroes and to openly gay politicians or members of racial minorities.
The pursuit of diversity appeared to founder this year when Sarkozy sacked Rachida Dati, the first Arab minister and icon of diversity, after complaints of incompetence.
Appointing a Mitterrand to such a high-profile job was just as courageous for a president who had promised “rupture” with the bad old ways of the past. Mitterrand, 62, claimed he had asked Sarkozy if he thought the book would be “an obstacle”. The president had replied: “Not at all. I’ve read it. It’s a very good book.”
He may not think quite so highly of it today. According to a poll conducted last week his approval rating has dropped by five points to 41% in a month. The largest fall (16%) was among the over 65-year-olds, the conservative voters Sarkozy relied on to win power in 2007.
He hopes, no doubt, that the fuss will soon fade but this seems unlikely. Inaugurating an art exhibition in Bordeaux yesterday, Mitterrand was jeered by protesters with prams and posters saying, “Don’t touch our children.” Only a quarter of viewers found Mitterrand convincing as he responded with indignation and anger to a grilling by a female interviewer on television on Thursday about his activities in the brothels of Thailand.
When asked how he was sure he had never paid for sex with a minor, the minister prompted scepticism by replying that he could distinguish between a youth and a “40-year-old boxer”.
Calling for his resignation, Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Front, quoted a paragraph in which he wrote: “The abundance of very attractive and immediately available young boys put me in a state of desire.”
The book was critically acclaimed in its day and Mitterrand, a gentle soul who often rides a scooter to work and has never hidden his homosexuality, was praised for his honesty.
It exploded in his face only because he had stirred anger by rushing to the defence of Polanski, who is fighting extradition from Switzerland to the United States, from where he fled after admitting a sex offence with a girl of 13 in 1977.
Mitterrand was not the only French minister to express outrage at the arrest of Polanski. Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister, said the director had committed nothing more than a “youthful error”. Various pillars of the cultural elite signed a petition calling for his release.
“Being an artist or intellectual is considered a privilege in France,” explained Christian Viviani, a French film professor, suggesting that prominent French artists and intellectuals believe their work allows them some moral leeway. Politicians seem more than happy to indulge that belief: Jack Lang, a culture minister appointed by President François Mitterrand, was one of the most outspoken supporters of Bertrand Cantat, a French rock star who bludgeoned his girlfriend, the actress Marie Trintignant, to death in a hotel room in Lithuania in 2003. He was released from jail in 2007 after serving only half his eight-year sentence.
Bruni-Sarkozy, for her part, managed to persuade her husband last year not to send Marina Petrella back to Italy where she is wanted on murder and terrorism charges.
The public appears to have little sympathy for Polanski: in one poll more than 70% said the film maker should face justice. Many letter writers have also condemned his defenders, especially after reminders of the contents of Mitterrand’s book.
From André Gide’s accounts of sex with young boys in Algeria in the 1920s to Michel Houellebecq’s novels, the subject of sexual tourism has often stirred controversy in France and is decried by the government. Except, it seems, when a minister is involved.
It emerged that Sarkozy himself was co-ordinating the defence of “Frédo”, as he is known to friends, advising him to “defend his honour” before the French people.
The government’s decision to rally around Mitterrand seemed to be based partly on the idea that his private life was being intruded upon, even if he had invited such scrutiny with his book.
The right to a private life has long been regarded as sacred by French politicians. A compliant press has seldom dared to puncture the taboo but in an age of instant communication and internet competition the ramparts are crumbling.
The French press showed little appetite for the Mitterrand story until film of Le Pen reading extracts from the book on various internet websites made it impossible to ignore.
For the Establishment it is a frightening revolution. “Do we really want a totally transparent society?” asked Laurent Joffrin, editor of Libération, the left-wing newspaper. “Do we really want a society of inquisition?”
For Garriaud-Maylam, a more basic principle is at stake. “I feel that ministers should set a good example,” she said. “Unfortunately, that is not the case here — far from it.”
Rise of Bruni’ s left-leaning friends
The embattled French culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, is one of several left-leaning friends of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the first lady, to have been drafted into the service of Nicolas Sarkozy.
An informal “kitchen cabinet” of left-wing advisers around the French president includes Raphaël Enthoven, one of her former lovers, and Marin Karmitz, a film producer and former Maoist who works with Mitterrand as a “cultural adviser”.
Enthoven, a philosophy professor, is the father of Aurélien, Bruni-Sarkozy’s eight-year-old son. In spite of their separation the two have remained friends and talk on the telephone most days. He is a regular guest at the Sakozys’ dining table.
Bruni-Sarkozy’s ability to attract such figures to the camp of Sarkozy, who was once reviled by the Parisian elite as uncultured, is a result of fratricidal bickering in the moribund Socialist party. Enthoven has torn up his membership card in disgust.
Karmitz, who often joins the first couple for cocktails, likes to say: “It is not me that has changed. It’s the left.”
The French media have christened these champagne Socialist deserters la gauche Carla – a variation of the “caviar left”. They are united in their disenchantment with the Socialists, who are unlikely to return to power, and admiration for the dynamic Sarkozy.
Bruni-Sarkozy’s influence extends well beyond the choice of advisers and ministers. Sarkozy has also taken to reading books and has shed weight under a strict regime of dieting and exercise, which was blamed for an illness he suffered while jogging in the summer.
Your Comments
2 Comments
(Displaying 1-2)
Order By:
- Alex Penn wrote:
Is this the sophisticated European style to which we must all aspire?
--
Only if you are desperate to prove nothing to nobodies.
October 11, 2009 12:50 AM BST on community.timesonline.co.uk
Recommend? (2)
Report Abuse
Permalink
Ower Heaton wrote: Is this the sophisticated European style to which we must all aspire? France-Belgium, they both seem to be run by people with an unhealthy interest in children or by apologists for those people. I want no part of it.