France falls for the politics of seduction

DID president Jacques Chirac have a child with a Japanese mistress? Did the socialist politician and would-be presidential candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn attend a sex soirée? Did former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing really have as many mistresses as the salons of Paris have claimed?

Sex and politics have intermingled in France for centuries, but the private lives of politicians have historically been kept secret.

This is, after all, the country in which president François Mitterrand concealed for years the existence of a daughter born out of wedlock. It was disclosed by the popular magazine Paris-Match in 1994, just months before he left office, and both of his families attended his funeral two years later.

Now, Sexus Politicus, a 390-page tell-all book on the subject, has catapulted to the top of the non-fiction best-seller lists - a reflection of the erosion of privacy in French public life and an appetite for a gossipy read.

The authors, Christophe Dubois and Christophe Deloire, are veteran investigative reporters who have written books about the murder of the prefect of Corsica in 1998 and the rise of Islamic extremism in France.

"It's a rather serious book based on interviews, not just hearsay," said Patrick Jarreau of Le Monde, though the book does circulate old rumours that the authors say cannot be confirmed. "Sex and politics seven months ahead of a presidential election - that's a pretty good recipe for success."

The book's central premise is that in France, a successful politician is also a seductive politician. Sex, the authors say, is a civic imperative. "Far from being a flaw, to cast yourself in the role of seducer is, without doubt, an important quality in our political life," the book claims.

Certainly, power attracts. When Edgar Faure became prime minister in the 1950s, he gained the lofty title "President of the Council," and that apparently made all the difference. "When I was a minister, some women resisted me," he once was quoted as saying. "Once I became president, not even one." (He died at age 79 in the bed of his half-clothed mistress.)

De Gaulle was the only post-Second World War French leader to maintain a strict military discipline over his personal life, the book asserts. More recently, it adds, Giscard d'Estaing, Mitterrand and Chirac juggled the demands of the state, their families and their extracurricular activities with aplomb.

They understood, according to the authors, a fundamental rule of French politics: Good politicians love and are loved.

"When I was president of the republic, I was in love with 17 million French women," Giscard d'Estaing said. "When I saw them in the crowd, they felt it and then they voted for me."

The authors speculate that one reason the socialist former prime minister Lionel Jospin was not a more attractive presidential candidate was that he was "too lacking" in seduction.

Chirac, by contrast, apparently had such power over women that his wife, Bernadette, confessed in a book in 2001 that she suffered from terrible jealousy. "The day Napoleon abandoned Josephine, he lost everything," she warned him several times.

The book also quotes Chirac's chauffeur for 25 years, Jean-Claude Laumond, as saying that Mrs Chirac would ask: "But in short, Mr Laumond, where is my husband tonight?"

Considerable space is devoted to the well-documented soap opera marriage of interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading candidate for the presidential nomination for the governing UMP party, and his wife, Cécilia. The editor of Paris-Match was forced to resign after the magazine published a cover photo of Mrs Sarkozy and her supposed lover looking at a New York apartment layout.

The book speculates that at first, Sarkozy presented himself as lonely and long-suffering, but then thought better of it, letting it be known through supporters that he was happy.

"If I have a free evening, I know with whom I want to spend it," the weekly magazine Le Point quoted Sarkozy as saying last year. (He was reported to have been involved for several months with a prominent newspaper reporter.) He and his wife have since got back together.

To avoid being prosecuted under France's tough privacy and anti-defamation laws, the authors of the book took the precaution of withholding the names of some of the lovers, and made sure they kept ample ammunition in their files - from interviews and from police and intelligence reports, in case of repercussions.

Sometimes the book knocks down rumours, but it also cites public reports the authors could not confirm. For instance, the unsubstantiated story about Chirac fathering a child with a Japanese mistress was told in a book in 2003.

"We haven't been attacked because, to be really honest, often we knew more than we wrote," Deloire said. "No politician wants to run the risk that more stories will come out in court." Instead of protesting, the subjects of the book are staying quiet. Spokesmen for Chirac, Sarkozy and Giscard d'Estaing all declined to comment. Strauss-Kahn's office did not respond to several requests.

Unlike in Britain, where such a revelation would become the focus of a blanket media investigation, French journalists barely raised the issue.

Indeed, the reaction of the French people is starkly different from that in the United States, where a sex scandal can threaten to bring down the Clinton government. A poll in January by TNS Sofres for the newspaper Le Figaro, found that most French voters wanted their next president to be around 50, multilingual, honest and willing to listen. Only 17% said they would not vote for those who had extramarital affairs.

That Ségolène Royal, the leading candidate for the socialist nomination in next year's presidential election, is not married to the father of their four children has not been an issue.

That said, the French tolerance - or even celebration - of sexual exploits may change if Royal becomes president.

"This French exception that makes power rhyme with sexual prowess - will it survive the feminisation of politics?" Le Figaro newspaper asked.

"This question has not escaped Ségolène Royal, who predicts the revenge of women if she assumes power."