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Homosexuals call all men boys, he said. 'They say boys when you are 60 years old'
Frederic Mitterrand
French culture minister called to resign over sex with 'boys'
President Sarkozy's new culture minister, Frederic Mitterrand, was last night facing calls for his resignation over his past accounts of paying for sex with "boys" in Bangkok.
The nephew of the late President Mitterrand is openly gay, but the content of his bestselling autobiography, The Bad Life, published in 2005, is now being exploited by his opponents on the political extreme right and in the main opposition Socialist party to question his suitability for office.
Mitterrand, 62, a former TV presenter, writer and gay rights activist, wrote of his attraction to young male prostitutes when travelling around Thailand, confessing: "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."
When the critically acclaimed book was first published, Mitterrand was praised for his honesty, but his defence of Roman Polanski, arrested in Switzerland for extradition to the US for having sex with a 13-year-old girl, gave his critics an opportunity to attack him. Mitterrand was the first major political figure to publicly support the film director, but his vigorous defence was controversial and the French government eventually distanced itself.
Jean-Marie Le Pen's extreme right Front National began the calls for Mitterrand's resignation by starting an online petition, and Le Pen's daughter, Marine Le Pen, an MEP, read extracts from the book in a television debate on Monday and described the culture minister as "an indelible stain on the government".
Benoit Hamon, a spokesman for the Socialist party, said: "As a minister of culture he has drawn attention to himself by defending a film maker accused of raping a child and he has written a book where he said he took advantage of sexual tourism. To say the least, I find it shocking."
Mitterrand responded: "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."
In a television appearance at the time of the book's publication, he denied that the prostitutes were under age, saying that homosexuals call all men "boys". "They say boys when you are 60 years old."
The appointment of Mitterrand, a non-politician, to one of the most powerful cabinet portfolios was at the encouragement of Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni, and a component of the president's quest for a wainbow cabinet".
Mitterrand's aides said he had been prepared for the assault since the announcement of his appointment in June, but it had been assumed that France's tradition of discretion about the private lives of public figures would protect him. His uncle, who was president from 1981 to 1995, had a secret second family and an illegitimate daughter, facts unknown to the French public until the year before he left office. It has been suggested that the controversy has been fuelled by the growth of the internet, the greater scrutiny of French public figures and a concern over paedophilia which has seen France prosecuting its citizens for sex with under-age Thai prostitutes.
