French Culture Minister admits paying for sex with 'young Thai boys'

Paris, Oct.8 (ANI): French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand has admitted to paying "young boys" for sexual acts while on holiday in Thailand.

Frédéric Mitterrand wrote about paying "young boys" for sex during trips abroad, reports The Telegraph.

The revelations in his 2005 autobiography "The Bad Life" have come back to haunt Mitterrand after he emerged as one of the most vociferous defenders of Roman Polanski, the film director currently detained in Switzerland in connection with an outstanding conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in the US in 1977.

In his book, Mitterrand, the nephew of former president François Mitterrand, wrote: "I got into the habit of paying for boys...All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excite me enormously. One could judge this abominable spectacle from a moral standpoint but it pleases me beyond the reasonable."

Curiously, there was little outcry when the book was published in 2005. However, Marine Le Pen, daughter of the far-right National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, on a political chat show, brought Mitterrand's tastes to the fore on Monday.

Le Pen read out a passage in which Mitterrand wrote: "The profusion of very attractive and immediately available young boys puts me in a state of desire that I no longer need to hinder nor hide...as I know that I will not be refused."

Her call for his resignation has become an Internet hit.

On Tuesday, the opposition Socialists joined the chorus of outrage.

Benoît Hamon, the party spokesman, said: "As a minister of culture he has drawn attention to himself by defending a film maker and he has written a book where he said he took advantage of sexual tourism. To say the least, I find it shocking."

Mitterrand responded Tuesday by saying he was "flabbergasted".

Mitterrand, who joined the cabinet in June, was considered a great catch for President Nicholas Sarkozy and proof of his "open" style of government.

He comes from a grand Socialist family and is admired by many in the Left-wing cultural establishment.

French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was said to have had a hand in his nomination. (ANI)