Frédéric Mitterrand

Frédéric Mitterrand 21 August 1947 21 March 2024 was a French actor screenwriter producer and politician who served as Minister of Culture and Communication of France from 2009 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy Born in Paris he was the nephew of François Mitterrand 19161996 who was the president of France from 1981 to 1995 and the son of engineer Robert Mitterrand 19152002 and Édith Cahier the niece of Eugène Deloncle the cofounder of La Cagoule Owing to his family heritage Mitterrand acquired Tunisian citizenship in 1995 He was openly bisexual Mitterrand attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris and studied history and geography at the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense and political science at Sciences Po He taught economics history and geography at EABJM from 1968 to 1971 In 1978 he was a film critic at Jinforme From 1971 to 1986 he ran several art film cinemas in Paris Olympic Palace Entrepôt and OlympicEntrepôt He also had roles in a number of films and in the 1980s was active as a producer and director in TV productionscitation needed Mitterrand also penned a monthly column for Têtu In June 2008 Mitterrand was appointed the director of the French Academy in Rome by President Nicolas Sarkozy and was appointed to the French government a year later as the Minister of Culture and Communications a role he would hold for the remainder of Sarkozys time in office Mitterrands novel The Bad Life French La mauvaise vie which mixed autobiographical and fictionalised elements was the source of significant controversy In the book he detailed his delight whilst visiting the male brothels of Bangkok and wrote 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 I no longer needed to restrain or hide Mitterrands writings were applauded for their honesty at time of release but resurfaced in a different light four years later following his defence of Roman Polanski who had been detained in Switzerland and awaiting extradition to face American charges for sexually abusing a minor On 5 October 2009 Marine Le Pen quoted sections of the book on French television accusing him of having sex with underage boys and engaging in sex tourism demanding that Mitterrand resign from the government He was also criticised by thenSocialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon who stated that as a minister of culture he has drawn attention to himself by defending Polanski and he has written a book where he said he took advantage of sexual tourism To say the least I find it shocking On the other hand he received support from a close aide to Nicolas Sarkozy who said the French President backed his Culture Minister describing the controversy around him as pathetic Source Article Frédéric Mitterrand from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA