On Wednesday, June 24, France will officially have a new Minister of Culture: Frédéric Mitterrand, nephew of former French president François Mitterrand.
The first openly gay individual to be appointed to high office in France, he will replace outgoing minister Christine Albanel, whom French President Nikolas Sarkozy has called "too sad."
The cabinet-level position oversees national museums and monuments; promotes and protects the arts (visual, plastic, theatrical, musical, dance, architectural, literary, televisual and cinematographic) in France and abroad; and manages the national archives and regional "maisons de culture" (culture centres). The Ministry of Culture is also charged with maintaining the French identity.
The 61-year-old Mitterand, currently the Director of the Villa Medici in Rome, has had a long and respected career in the arts.
He holds a doctorate in history from the University of Nanterre, which he followed up with post-graduate work at the prestigious l'Institut d'études politiques.
In 1971, he abandoned his academic career as a professor of history and geography to pursue his passion for film.
He has produced and/or directed a number of films and television productions. He has also written a number of books, including his controversial but widely read 2005 autobiography entitled La mauvaise vie (The Bad Life) in which he starkly chronicled his loneliness as a gay man.
It is his role as a high-profile gay activist for which he is probably best known in France. A regular contributor to the French gay magazine Têtu, he was also the chief television presenter for the French gay television network Pink TV for many years.
Mitterand is also the recipient of some of France's highest honors, including Knight of the Legion of Honor, Officer of the National Order of Merit, and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.
In a television interview, the incoming Culture Minister called his new appointment "an exalted task and an honor."
However, Mitterand holds no illusions about the hard work that awaits him: "It is a difficult job, and I appreciate the difficulty of certain projects, such as the law on piracy, the state of the press, and public television... I intend not to be devoured by internal problems and technostructure."
This appointment by the conservative Sarkozy effectively creates the most diverse cabinet in French history, which has led to widespread discussion by pundits across the political spectrum.
Many have commented that Sarkozy's choice of such a pedigreed figure to head the Ministry of Culture is nothing short of a political coup that will likely further ensconce the current regime in the presidential palace.
Most people associate the name Mitterand with the Socialist Party because the powerful François Mitterrand, president of France from 1981 to 1995, has been the only Socialist head of state since World War II.
Sarkozy's choice is widely viewed as a means of shoring up support for his conservative regime by reaching out to a more left-wing party. However, Frédéric Mitterrand has refused to comment publicly on his politics. As Pierre Moscovici notes, such analysis is simply an exercise in semantics: "The name Mitterand is not synonymous with socialism, and I do not find that Frédéric Mitterrand has a distinguished record of service for the Left. This is the appropriation of a name from the dictionary; it is not an overture to the Left."
Socialist legislator Arnaud Montebourg was even more dismissive of Mitterand's appointment and its potential political ramifications: "It's a TV presenter who is going to become Minister of Culture." Ahhh, political posturing.
Nothing in life is certain except for death, taxes, and the ability of politicians to spin the joy right out of everything. Félicitations, M. Mitterand!
Source: CarnalNation, 23 June 2009