French politicians: The amorous side

Paris: Challenging one of the great taboos of French politics, a new book has laid bare the love life of the country's

amorous leaders. Sexus politicus, reveals decades of philandering, adultery and seduction at the heart of the French state, with politicians of all colours apparently sharing the same passion for extra-marital sex. According to the book, President Jacques Chirac and his predecessors Francois Mitterrand and Valery Giscard D'estaing have juggled the fate of France, their families and a bevy of lovers with great ease, helped partly by an acquiescent media. While there is little in the 390-page book that will surprise France's chattering classes, it nonetheless rips up the long-standing rule that what politicians do between the sheets should remain strictly off the record. ''All these politicians present themselves as clean-living individuals, but at the same time almost all French male politicians are compulsive womanisers,'' said Christophe Dubois, who co-authored the book with Christophe Deloire. ''This is an area that no one has explored before. It was a taboo. We've broken this taboo with the complicity of the politicians,'' he told, explaining how many of the book's targets willingly discussed their amorous exploits. Sexus Politicus revisits old tales of how Mitterrand, an infamous ladies' man, slept with the same women as some close aides, his driver and, on one occasion, Chirac. The current French President also comes across as a veritable Casanova, disappearing on midnight rendezvous and using state funds to take a mistress on foreign trips. ''Do you know where my husband is tonight?'' the book quotes Chirac's long-suffering wife Bernadette as asking his chauffeur on the night Princess Diana died in a Paris road accident. ''There was a type of competition between Chirac and Mitterrand to see who could have more lovers. I don't know who took the podium but it was a close thing,'' said Dubois. One ex-minister is spotted at a swingers club, one discarded mistress tries to commit suicide, another is cruelly dumped by a politician expected to contest the 2007 Presidential election. Allegations of such bedroom antics would shred political careers in many other countries, but in France, the elite are to some extent shielded by libel laws that hinder reporters from prying into private lives. The book's authors say they double checked its contents with those involved or having written proof, such as court documents. If history is anything to go by, France's politicians have little to fear about the revelations, given the traditional gallic indifference to sex scandals, with the French not only forgiving dalliances at the top, but also expecting them. One French President, Felix Faure, died in the arms of his lover, Napoleon's affair with Josephine was legendary, and when Mitterrand revealed shortly before his death that he had an illegitimate daughter, the general reaction was ''So what?'' ''There is a French tradition of politicians who equate the conquest of power with the conquest of lovers. Sexual prowess seems to go with political success,'' said Dubois. However, all that may change if Socialist Presidential Front runner Segolene Royal should win the 2007 election. Royal may have to live by very different rules. ''What is tolerated for men would never be tolerated for women politicians. They would immediately be discredited if they went around having affairs,'' said Dubois. Bureau Report