France usually shrugs at sex scandals but not this one.
Paris: A sex scandal brought an end to the campaign of a Paris mayoral candidate on Friday, an unusual episode in a country with a reputation for shrugging over extramarital affairs and the private lives of its politicians.Benjamin Griveaux announced he was ending his campaign after the circulation of an undated video apparently depicting him masturbating – footage the politician allegedly recorded on his phone and sent to a woman who was not his wife.
His departure shakes up the Paris mayor’s race. With only a month to go before the vote, President Emmanuel Macron’s party now does not have a candidate – though Griveaux had already been trailing in the polls.
But the bigger question on people’s minds was why he bowed out and why he did it so quickly.
Some might say the bigger question was why he filmed the act and sent video to a woman not his wife. Anyway, all of Griveaux’s opponents have come to his defence – which was nice of them. As strangely indifferent as the French are about sexual peccadilloes (notwithstanding that it’s a form of nihilist braggadocio), I can’t help but admire their attitude. The Anglophone alternative – exemplified by the Lewinsky affair and even the Barnaby Joyce baby scandal – is more strange in one sense: it is prosecuted by a journalist-commentary class that likes to scoff at traditional morality. They’re the hypocrites. Piously condemnatory of religion but nympho/priapic about embarrassing certain flawed public figures – usually non-leftists – they dislike.