Thread: French minister was Thai sex tourist

French minister was Thai sex tourist

France's culture minister, already under fire for defending Roman Polanski, was attacked Wednesday for his four-year-old "autobiographical novel'' whose hero indulges in Asian sex tourism.

Frederic Mitterrand, the 62-year-old nephew of late president Francois Mitterrand, last week denounced as "horrifying'' the Franco-Polish film maker's arrest on a three decade-old US warrant for sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Mitterrand's defence of Polanksi called attention to his book, described by its publisher as a "novel of autobiographical inspiration", in which the first-person narrator recounts sexual adventures with Thai "boys''.

"At a time when France is engaged with Thailand to fight against the curse of sex tourism, here we have a government minister who himself explains that he is a consumer,'' opposition Socialist party spokesman Benoit Hamon told AFP.

On Tuesday, the far-right National Front party called for Mitterrand's resignation, saying his 2005 book La Mauvaise Vie (The Bad Life) had left "an indelible stain on the government.''

"He describes in detail the manner in which he conducts sexual tourism and the pleasure he has in paying little Thai boys while being aware of the perversity of this system,'' said Front deputy leader Marine Le Pen.

Mitterrand was appointed by President Nicolas Sarkozy in June.

The minister who, despite his political lineage, never became a card-carrying Socialist, previously had a successful career as a writer, documentary-maker and television presenter.

The passages in "The Bad Life'' that have sparked controversy deal with the hero's visits to brothels and boy bars in South East Asia.

The hero describes the mixture of feverish excitement and guilt he feels as he hands over money for sex with "boys'' whose age he does not state.

"The profusion of boys who are very attractive and immediately available puts me in a state of desire that I longer need to curb or hide,'' Mitterrand writes.

When the book, due to be published in English translation next year in the United States, came out in 2005 it was well-received by French critics. Little mention was made of the sexual tourism it evokes.

Mitterrand responded to Wednesday's attacks by saying that it was an "honour to be dragged through the mud'' by the extreme right but that he found it shameful for the left to find common cause with Le Pen's attack.

When Polanski, who lives in Paris, was detained in Switzerland, Mitterrand called the arrest "absolutely horrifying'' and said it showed "a side of America which is frightening.''

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner wrote to US authorities to ask for the charges against Polanski to be dropped.

Last week, however, the French government backed away from support for Polanski, with its spokesman saying the Oscar-winning director was not "above the law.''

The 76-year-old fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to "unlawful sexual intercourse'' with a 13-year-old girl.

Writer: AFP


Sex with boys admission haunts French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterand

President Sarkozy’s new Culture Minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, was struggling to save his name and possibly his job last night amid a storm over his past accounts of paying “boys” for sex.

The nephew of the late President Mitterrand, who is openly gay, was thrown on the defensive after opposition politicians homed in on a memoir in which he described his delight in visiting brothels in Bangkok.

“I got into the habit of paying for boys ... The profusion of young, very attractive and immediately available boys put me in a state of desire that I no longer needed to restrain or hide,” he wrote.

The autobiography, La mauvaise vie (The Bad Life), was a critically acclaimed bestseller in 2005 and Mr Mitterrand, 62, a popular television presenter, was praised for his honesty. It rebounded on him this week after he leapt to the defence of Roman Polanski, the filmmaker, who was arrested in Switzerland for extradition to face a Los Angeles court for having sex with a girl aged 13.

Marine Le Pen, of the far-right National Front party, read extracts on television on Monday and demanded Mr Mitterrand’s resignation. for which the party is circulating a petition.

As outrage intensified on the internet, the Socialist party, the main opposition, said yesterday that it was appalled that the apparent practitioner of paedophile abuse was serving as a Cabinet minister. “I find it shocking that a man can justify sex tourism under the cover of a literary account,” said Benoît Hamon, a senior Socialist.

Mr Mitterrand, who hails from the political Left, hit back yesterday, saying that he was flattered that his name was being sullied by extremists but shocked by the Socialists’ attitude. “If the National Front drags me through the mud, it is an honour. If a left-wing MP drags me through the mud, he should be ashamed,” he said.

He had been prepared for the assault since Mr Sarkozy announced his appointment in June, aides said. The President had been encouraged by Carla Bruni, his wife, to promote the non-politician to one of the most powerful Cabinet portfolios. Aware of the risks, his advisers had deemed that Mr Mitterrand would be protected by France’s tradition of discretion over the private lives of public figures.

It appeared that they had not taken account of the power of the internet, the greater scrutiny of private life and public emotion over paedophile crimes. France has been active in prosecuting French citizens for sex with under-age prostitutes in Thailand.

Mr Mitterrand’s late uncle, who was President from 1981 to 1995, kept a second family and illegitimate daughter secret from the French public until the year before he left office.

Last night there was an embarrassed silence from the Elysée Palace. Claude Guéant, Mr Sarkozy’s chief of staff, said that Mr Mitterrand had been expressing his “own sensibilities” in his support for Mr Polanski. Chantal Brunel, an MP and former spokeswoman for Mr Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement, said that Mr Mitterrand’s book was sordid, but the row over it was a “a non-event”.

Websites sympathetic to Mr Mitterrand said that he had already explained his Thai exploits after the 2005 book. In one television appearance, he said that homosexuals call all men ‘boys’. “They say boys when you are 60 years old,” he said at the time, denying that the male prostitutes were under age.

Charges that he used “little boys” were “part of the general puritanism which surrounds us nowadays and which always tries to blacken the picture,” he told France3 television in 2005.

Sex with boys admission haunts French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterand - Times Online

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