France's Culture Minister (a Polanski Defender) in Trouble Regarding the Sex Tourism for Young Boys He Admits to in His Autobiography

A major article on Prague by Piotr Smolar in Le Monde, on 2 full pages, inaugurating a 5-part series on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the Soviet block throughout Europe — entitled "Mémoires à vif du communisme" — has led to not a single comment from any of its readers.

By contrast, the imbroglio involving Frédéric Mitterrand has led to almost 250 "réactions" from Le Monde's readers.

The culture minister's problem concerns a book he published in 2005. In the "semi-real, semi-dreamt autobiography", the defender of Roman Polanski and the demonizer of the American heartland tells of sexual tourism to places such as Thailand and Jakarta.

Parmi les scènes les plus fortes des pages hallucinées dans des maisons closes de Thaïlande où des jeunes gens défilent devant des hommes venus du monde entier, des nuits pluvieuses à Djakarta où le narrateur cueille un "boy" aux allures de paysan athlétique. "L'argent et le sexe, je suis au cœur de mon système, celui qui fonctionne enfin, car je sais qu'on ne me refusera pas", écrit l'auteur, face à cette profusion de chair à l'étal.

But actually, quite a number French politicians (and citizens) seem shocked, indeed disgusted, by the fact that the matter was brought up by the far-right Front National than by Mitterrand's antics. (Didn't Nicolas Sarkozy say, when presented with accusations that in some instances durig his presidential campaign, he was close to the positions of the FN: "It's not because Jean-Marie Le Pen says the sun is yellow that I am going to say it is blue"?)

And what is the punchline? you ask…

La Mauvaise Vie is being translated into English.