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French finance minister raises eyebrows with racy new novel

A new novel by France's finance minister, containing one breathlessly erotic passage that has gone viral, has raised eyebrows - and questions about how he finds the time to publish his stream of books.

Published: 1 May 2023 19:50 CEST

French finance minister raises eyebrows with racy new novel

French Minister for Economy, Finance, Industry and Digital Security Bruno Le Maire Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP

Fugue americaine (American Fugue) by Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, 54, is no less than the 13th book by the politician who has held his post since Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017.

Le Maire has been on the front line of defending Macron’s controversial pension reform which has sparked months of sometimes violent protests but the government says is necessary to balance the books.

He also faces to pressure to help the French deal with the rising cost of living due to surges in fuel prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But “American Fugue” inhabits a wholly different world.

It is devoted to the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, through the story of two brothers, Franz and Oskar Wertheimer, who travel to Cuba to attend one of his concerts and whose lives are then turned upside down.

But it is one single page of the novel, widely shared and the target of mockery on social media, that has taken all the attention.

It describes Oskar having sex with a woman named as Julia, described in fairly explicit terms.

For those with a strong stomach, you can find the scene below . . .

Écrire sur la sexualité n'est pas à la portée du premier trou du cul venu. #BrunoLemaire #stadedefrance #100joursDeZbeul #IntervillesDuZbeul #64ansCestNON

Bruno Lemaire, accessoirement ministre de l'économie.
Fugue américaine, Ed. Gallimard. pic.twitter.com/ySoZLw5GFP

— Harold Bernat (@bernathoustra) April 29, 2023

MP for the hard-left La France Insoumise party François Ruffin said the minister should not have “a minute, an hour, a week of his time to devote to writing a book” when the French are experiencing “big worries about inflation”.

In an unfortunate coincidence for the minister, the novel was published on Thursday, just hours before credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country’s debt worthiness.

It also comes as controversy mounts over the communications of Macron’s government after social economy minister Marlene Schiappa posed for Playboy, albeit clothed.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne took umbrage over the April front cover shoot, calling Schiappa to tell her that it “was not at all appropriate, especially in the current period”.

Le Maire’s colleague Olivier Dussopt admitted he had not read the new novel but defended the minister’s right to write it.

“This shows that there are feelings… behind the suits of the ministers,” he told BFMTV, adding he had seen the erotic passage and it “made him smile”.

Le Maire, who has written five of his 13 books in the last four years alone, said he has no trouble mixing this double literary and political career.

“If there were only politics – without the freedom that literary and romantic creation gives – politics would not be enough,” he said last week in an interview with AFP.

In a statement on Twitter, Le Maire acknowledged that many followers were curious about “how I find the time to write while I am a minister”.

He added that while he was devoted to his job he had also learned to take care of “my personal balance”.

“Some people go to museums, cinemas, concerts, the football. Others do the gardening or go hiking. As for me, I write.”

“It’s a need that makes it worthwhile to get up early, go to bed late and to devote weekends and holidays to this.”

Politics and erotica

Le Maire is far from the only published author in the French government and many past and present ministers have turned their hands to erotic and romantic works.

Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe co-wrote Dans l’Ombre (In the Shadows) a detective novel crossed with erotica, while Marlene Schiappa – who was a writer and blogger before becoming a politician – has never denied claims made by L’Express newspaper that in the past she authored erotic novels under a pseudonym.

French politician and novelist Aurélie Filippetti has also included a very racy scene in a novel and there’s the erotic novel written by former President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1994, Le Passage (The Passing) which sparked rumours of an affair between the former president and Princess Diana.

And then of course there’s Emmanuel Macron’s unpublished novel. The President is believed to have, when very young, written a novel about his budding relationship with Brigitte Trogneux (now Madame Macron) although it’s not clear whether this a romance or something a little smuttier and very few people claim to have actually read it.

One of Le Maire’s previous works also sparked a few smiles, when he described Macron as having “a blue gaze tinted by metallic sparkles, like a lake burdened with sunshine whose surface it would have been impossible, under the scintillating reflections, to pierce.”

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.