PARIS – French culture minister Frédéric Mitterrand won the backing of fellow politicians on Sunday against calls for his resignation for having written about paying young male prostitutes in Thailand.
Government spokesman Luc Chatel, immigration minister Eric Besson and Left Party founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke out in support of the nephew of former French president François Mitterrand, who has threatened legal action to protect his reputation.
“Enough of this manhunt . . . The private life of Frédéric Mitterrand is none of my business,” Mr Chatel told BFM TV.
Revelations that Mr Mitterrand made in a 2005 autobiography, The Bad Life, resurfaced when he strongly defended Roman Polanski, who was arrested in Switzerland last month and faces extradition to the United States for having had sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.
Mr Mitterrand was compelled to defend himself on television last week, saying he had only been with consenting adults and had committed no crime. He added that he condemned both sex tourism and paedophilia.
The row was further fuelled on Friday when the Quotidien de la Réunion newspaper published a letter sent by Mr Mitterrand when he was director of the French Academy in Rome in support of the family of two boys accused, and later convicted, of rape.
“I no longer tolerate these attacks. It’s vile. It’s a simple thing that I can very easily explain,” Mr Mitterrand told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper in response.
“I bore witness to the morality of a family, that of my former make-up artist, on France 2 [TV]. Years ago, she had asked me to be the godfather of her son, who bears my name.”
Mr Melenchon told Europe 1 on Sunday that the continuing attacks on Mr Mitterrand were “unacceptable” and criticised those who would “cast stones” at the minister.
In the television interview, Mr Mitterrand described the book as “not totally autobiographical” and was evasive about the precise nature of his experiences in Thailand.
“In no way is it an apology of sex tourism . . . even if one of the chapters is a journey through that hell, with the fascination that hell can provoke,” said Mr Mitterrand.
Throughout the TF1 interview, he referred to his partners as “boys”.
The affair appears to have provoked a split in the government, with French labour minister Xavier Darcos saying Mr Mitterrand needed to explain his behaviour and Henri Guaino, adviser to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, defending him.
A poll carried out by the BVA organisation showed 67 per cent of French people do not want Mr Mitterrand to resign. – (Reuters)