French Political Sex Tape Scandal

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French Political Sex Tape Scandal
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France shrugs at sex scandals. But after a leaked video, this politician bowed out.
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PARIS — A sex scandal brought an end to the campaign of a Paris mayoral candidate on Friday, an unusual episode in a country with a reputation for shrugging over extramarital affairs and the private lives of its politicians.
Benjamin Griveaux announced he was ending his campaign after the circulation of an undated video apparently depicting him masturbating — footage the politician allegedly recorded on his phone and sent to a woman who was not his wife.
His departure shakes up the Paris mayor’s race. With only a month to go before the vote, President Emmanuel Macron’s party now does not have a candidate — though Griveaux had already been trailing in the polls.
But the bigger question on people’s minds was why he bowed out and why he did it so quickly.
Griveaux, the French government’s former spokesman, cited an attack on his privacy and his family. “No one should be subjected to such violence,” he said in a recorded statement released Friday. He is married with two children.
Russian anti-state performance artist Petr Pavlensky claimed credit for releasing the video — it remained unclear how he obtained it — and said his motivation was fighting political hypocrisy.
“He’s someone who is constantly leaning on family values, who says that he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his wife and children as an example. But in fact [Griveaux] does just the opposite,” Pavlensky told the French newspaper Libération.
Pavlensky, who claimed asylum in France after being accused of sexual assault in Russia, also said on French television that this would not be his last attempt to embarrass a French politician.
But sex is not scandalous in French politics in the way it can be in Britain and in the United States.
In Paris, there were hardly any calls for Griveaux to withdraw. In the words of one of Macron’s political advisers, quoted in the French newspaper Le Monde : “He could remain a candidate, file a complaint, and present himself as the victim of an infamous maneuver. People will say, ‘It’s disgusting.’ But it’s not necessarily as risky as changing the candidate one month out from the vote.”
A number of Griveaux’s opponents and politicians from other parties rallied to his defense.
Paris’s Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo , running for reelection, called for “the respect of private life and of people.” Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon — certainly no friend of Macron’s party — called the attack “odious.” Mediapart , an investigative news outlet, said it had turned Pavlensky away when he reached out to them this past week.
“These messages and videos are nothing more than a clear invasion of privacy or revenge porn,” Mediapart wrote. “In both cases, it’s a criminal offense.”
Most political journalists here approach their subjects’ private lives like the White House press corps did in the Kennedy era. Let it go, and look the other way.
Just looking at French presidents, François Mitterrand had an entire second family, Jacques Chirac had multiple mistresses, Nicolas Sarkozy met and married a supermodel, and François Hollande left his journalist companion to have an affair with a leading French actress — prompting his ex to write a tell-all book about their relationship.
And yet there has never been a French version of, say, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, not even when Mitterrand’s second family showed up at his funeral in 1996. The publication of Mitterrand’s letters to his longtime mistress, “ Lettres à Anne ,” was a major literary event of 2016. News outlets highlighted the emotion in the letters and the quality of the writing, never the infidelity.
French outlets generally avoided sensationalizing the Griveaux news.
But Griveaux alluded to the role of social media in his decision. “I do not want to expose my family and myself any further when nothing seems off limits anymore,” he said.
Some began to wonder if the French political ecosystem is becoming too, well, American.
Alexis Corbière, a far-left member of the French parliament, decried what he called “this Americanization of political life, where people will apologize because they have lovers, mistresses, etc.”

This article is more than 1 year old
This article is more than 1 year old
Olivier Duhamel in May 2016. The French political scientist has resigned from the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques and deleted his Twitter account. Photograph: Stéphane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images
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Olivier Duhamel quits academic and media posts after allegations made in stepdaughter’s book
Olivier Duhamel, one of France’s most high-profile political scientists and media commentators, has resigned from his academic and media posts after he was accused of sexually abusing his stepson.
The constitutional expert’s stepdaughter – the alleged victim’s twin – says the abuse happened in the 1980s when she and her brother were 14 and was well known to many members of the family and friends.
Camille Kouchner revealed the alleged abuse, which she said was an “omerta” among those in Parisian political and media circles, in her book, la Familia grande, which is due to be published on Thursday but has been serialised in L’Obs magazine and Le Monde.
Duhamel, 70, has resigned from his job at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, which oversees and finances the prestigious Sciences Po grande école, and deleted his Twitter account, but has made no comment on the allegations.
Kouchner and her twin are the children of Bernard Kouchner, a former health and foreign affairs minister and the founder of the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, and Evelyne Pisier, a historian and writer, who died in 2017.
Kouchner and Pisier had three children, Julien and Camille and her twin brother, before separating in 1980. Afterwards Pisier had a four-year affair with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro before marrying Duhamel.
In the book, Camille Kouchner gives her twin the name “Victor”. She writes that the abuse continued for at least two years and that Pisier was told but preferred to protect her husband, as did family friends, to “avoid a scandal”. She says her brother begged her to keep the secret, telling her: “If you speak, I will die. I’m too ashamed. Help me tell him no, please.”
“I was 14 and I let it happen … I was 14 and I knew and I said nothing,” Kouchner, 45, writes. “Why does he have the right to live outside this reality when it haunts me.”
Kouchner, a legal specialist, adds that the “incest” – as it has been described in the French media – happened more than once and was an open secret among friends and family, who were asked not to say anything.
“My book recounts just how many people were aware,” she told Le Nouvel Observateur website L’Obs. “Of course I thought my life could be seen as offensive because my family is so well known, then I told myself, that’s exactly why I have to do this.”
She added: “I chose to write because I could no longer keep quiet. This book is born of a necessity: to bear witness to incest, to show that it went on for years and that it is very, very difficult to break the silence. I did not write it in the name of my brother, but for the sisters, the nieces, all those affected by incest. The omerta in a family weights on everyone.”
Her father, Bernard Kouchner , issued a statement through his lawyer. “A heavy secret that has weighed on us for so long has been lifted. I admire the courage of my daughter, Camille,” he wrote.
The FNSP sent an internal message to staff, seen by AFP, saying it had accepted Duhamel’s resignation “for personal reasons”. The foundation’s director, Frédéric Mion, said he had been “shocked” to read the allegations.
Duhamel, a former MEP and author of the much-studied constitutional work The Left and the 5th Republic, is also president of Le Siècle, an influential men’s club whose members include leading political, economic, cultural and media figures. He is the son of Jacques Duhamel, who was a minister under president Georges Pompidou.
Duhamel told Le Monde and L’Obs he had “nothing to say” in response to the allegations. On Monday, he tweeted he had resigned from “the institutions for which I work” after being the subject of “personal attacks”. He then deleted his account.
There can be no legal action as the accusations are beyond the time limit for prosecution.
Alexandre Kouchner, Camille and the alleged victim’s half-brother , supported his siblings in a Twitter message after the revelations of abuse.
“I love my brothers and my sister. I admire their courage and support their choice of breaking the silence. We must always listen, hear and protect those who have suffered and suffer. For the rest, I suggest you read the book,” Alexandre wrote.
The alleged victim of the abuse has yet to comment publicly on the case.
This article was amended on 6 January 2021 because an earlier version referred to Alexandre Kouchner as Camille’s stepbrother whereas he is her half-brother.

French President Francois Hollande is being plagued by allegations that he has been having an affair with a film actress.
French celebrity magazine Closer alleged Mr Hollande and actress Julie Gayet have been meeting at a Paris apartment building, but the report has since been removed from its website at the request of Ms Gayet's lawyer.
Mr Hollande is far from being the first French politician to be embroiled in such a scandal - here are five others:
Dominique Strauss Kahn, once tipped to become French president, was forced to stand down as International Monetary Fund chief following a series of allegations made against him.
In 2011, a maid at a New York hotel accused Mr Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her - criminal charges were eventually dropped and he subsequently reached a settlement in a civil case brought by the maid.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was also implicated in the "Carlton affair", which centred on claims that a prostitution ring was operating at a top hotel in Lille. He has denied the allegations.
The former French president was found to have been living a double life throughout his presidency and had a long-term mistress, Anne Pingeot, with whom he had a daughter Mazarine.
At his funeral in 1996, both Ms Pingeot and Mazarine attended alongside Mr Mitterrand's wife, Danielle, and their two sons.
The existence of his second family was not revealed publicly until near the end of his life.
French public officials were alleged to have protected a serial killer charged with murdering prostitutes who attended orgies at a Toulouse court house.
Patrice Alegre, who was jailed for life in February 2002, claimed he organised the orgies and that the city's senior officials ordered some of the murders in a bid to protect themselves from blackmail.
This 1959 scandal involved girls aged 14 -17 years old taking part in "ballet performances" at official residences that ended in orgies.
Andre Le Troquer, who was the president of France's National Assembly, was implicated in the scandal and charged with "offences against morality".
French political scandals are nothing new - Felix Faure, who was president from 1895-1899, was said to have died in bed with his mistress Marguerite Steinheil at the Elysee Palace.
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This article is more than 2 years old
This article is more than 2 years old
Benjamin Griveaux pictured as he announced his withdrawal from the mayoral campaign in Paris. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
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Benjamin Griveaux, who was standing for party of President Macron, lambasts ‘vile attacks’
Emmanuel Macron’s candidate for mayor of Paris in next month’s municipal elections has been forced to stand down after the leak of sexual images and messages online, blaming what he called “vile” attacks on his private life on social media.
Benjamin Griveaux, who was standing for the president’s governing centrist La République En Marche (LREM) party, made the announcement on Friday morning less than 48 hours after the material was first posted to a website.
“My family does not deserve this. Nobody should ever be subjected to this kind of abuse,” Griveaux said in a statement after a crisis meeting at his Paris campaign headquarters.
“For more than a year, my family and I have been subjected to defamatory remarks, lies, rumours, anonymous attacks, the revelation of stolen private conversations and death threats. As if all this was not enough, yesterday a new level was reached.”
Griveaux has received support since he withdrew from the race from politicians including the prime minister, Edouard Philippe, plus others who would more usually be his opponent. “The publication of intimate images to destroy an adversary is odious,” said hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
A video and text messages to a young woman purportedly from Griveaux, whose campaign has been struggling against rivals including the Socialist incumbent, Anne Hidalgo , and the former LREM MP Cédric Villani, were published by a website late on Wednesday and then spread to social media.
The video shows a man performing a sex act on himself accompanied by the message “Me this morning when I wake up”. It appears Griveaux and the woman were exchanging messages and photographs.
The 42-year-old former spokesman for Macron’s government and his wife have three children and he has often mentioned them during his mayoral election campaign. Griveaux has not disputed that he sent the messages.
Griveaux was elected to parliament representing LREM in 2017 after Macron became president. His campaign for mayor was central to Macron’s attempt to control Paris’s city hall to build a local power base for his party, but he had alienated many within his own camp after a leaked conversation with journalists revealed disparaging remarks he had made about LREM rivals.
A Russian artist living in Paris and reportedly close to the gilets jaunes movement told the Libération newspaper he had released the video and messages to the young woman to “denounce the hypocrisy” of the candidate.
“He [Griveaux] is someone who is always mentioning family values. He said he would be the mayor of Paris families and citing the example of his wife and children, while doing the opposite,” said Petr Pavlensky. The artist, who was granted political asylum in France, hit the headlines after setting fire to the Bank of France in Paris in 2017 and in Russia had protested against authorities by nailing his scrotum to Red Square .
Having extra-marital affairs or any other legal sexual relationship is not considered an obstacle to public life in France . Perhaps the most famous example of this is François Mitterrand, who maintained a second family while president.
When the French press broke its omertà on this, the public was more scandalised by the fact the president had partly maintained his lover and their daughter using taxpayers’ money than by the fact he had a secret family.
Hidalgo, the favourite to win the mayoral election in March, called for people’s private lives to be respected, adding: “Parisians deserve a dignified debate.”
Villani, who is facing moves to expel him from the party for standing against Griveaux, said he sent the former rival and his family “my complete and total support during this difficult time”.
“The attack he has been subject to is a serious threat to our democracy,” Villani tweeted.
Alexis Corbière of the hard-left La France Insoumise said he regretted the “Americanisation” of French political life in which “people have to apologise for having lovers or mistresses”.
Griveaux’s lawyer, Richard Malka, warned any publication’s breaking France’s strict privacy laws would face legal action. The laws mean any intrusion into a person’s personal or “intimate” life is, in serious cases, punishable by fines and prison sentences.
Olivia Grégoire, a LREM MP, told journalists outside Griveaux’s campaign headquarters that the candidate had made the decision to stand down alone.
“It’s the decision of a free man. It’s his decision,” she said. “La République en Marche is strong. La République en Marche is still here. We will not let Paris go.”

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