Frédéric Mitterrand fights for his future

French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand was fighting to keep his job last night, having been ensnared by a scandal of his own making.

The row began with his defence of famous film director Roman Polanski, (arrested with charges of paedophilia) where he said that the affair was “absolutely horrifying” before launching an attack on the USA. It was suggested that Mitterrand spoke well out of turn but he claimed that he was perfectly justified to comment and that the issue was well within his culture portfolio as it is his duty “to protect great artists”.

His comments have since backfired substantially, since a passage in his autobiography that had hitherto gone unnoticed became strikingly relevant. The passage described his experiences in Thailand paying for sex with boys in brothels.

He was invited onto TF1 and given a very easy ride (TF1 is a TV channel owned by one of Sarkozy’s friends) and categorically stated that he had never committed or advocated sex with minors and condemned strongly sexual tourism.

Marine Le Pen, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s daughter, of the Front National was first to hammer Mitterrand and call for his resignation. Shortly afterwards, a few people from the Parti Socialiste came out to express their shock but stopped short of calling for his resignation.

Mitterrand responded by saying that it was an honour to encounter the wrath of the Nationalists, but it was shameful that the Socialists would disapprove. As Frédéric is the nephew of the late Socialist President François Mitterrand, it’s almost certain the Socialists are exacting their revenge because he serves in Nicolas Sarkozy’s right wing UMP government.

I think Mitterand is safe for now. He has been one of the government stars since his ‘surprise’ appointment and in his performance on TF1 he said that he had Sarkozy’s support, so it looks unlikely that he will be forced to resign. However, he has been severely damaged by the affair and his interview has not set the record straight, mainly due to his exceedingly airy and evasive (and annoying) style of speaking.

His defence was very confusing, but I think that Mitterrand will keep his job for now, but Sarkozy will be looking to get rid of him in the next reshuffle.

Below is the video where he “explains himself”, even if you can’t understand French, it’s worth looking at to see how he sounds, it’s also interesting if you skip to 11:50 he gets a bit rattled, asking the journalist “How can you ask me that question? Have you not been listening to what I’ve been saying for the last 5 minutes?”