Compass World: A Griveaux-s Affair

Benjamin Griveaux suspended his campaign for the Paris mayoral election on February 14. (Wikipedia)

Benjamin Griveaux, the former spokesperson of the French government and a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s party, dropped out of the upcoming Paris mayoral race last week due to leaked sexually explicit messages and videos between Griveaux and an unnamed woman. In his decision to exit the race, Griveaux said, “A new stage has been reached: a website and social network relayed vile attacks on my private life. My family does not deserve this. No one should ever be subjected to such abuse.”

Though Macron quickly replaced Grevieaux with Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, both conservatives and liberals widely criticized the circumstances surrounding Griveaux’s withdrawal as a supposed “Americanization” of French politics. Many worried that this incident dangerously blurs the line between public and personal and undermines French society’s precedent for preventing the personal lives of elected officials from influencing their politics.

Valentine’s Day Gone Wrong

Dubbed by the French media as one of the “Macron boys,” a group of men who supported Macron’s ascent to the presidency, Griveaux ran in the Paris mayoral elections representing Macron’s center-left Republic On the Move! (REM) party. He suspended his campaign on February 14 when sexually explicit messages between him and a woman who is not his wife were released by Pyotr Pavlensky, a Russian performance artist living in France.

Pavlensky, to whom France granted political asylum in 2017, cited Griveaux’s supposed duplicity as the reason for the leak. Pointing to the candidate’s support of “family values” throughout the campaign, Pavlensky told the newspaper Libération that he exposed these messages and videos to illuminate Griveaux’s “hypocrisy.”

“I don’t mind people having the sexuality that they want,” Pavlensky told the newspaper. “But [Griveaux] wants to be the head of the city, and he is lying to voters.” French authorities are currently investigating Pavlensky and his girlfriend after Griveaux filed a complaint against Pavlensky on February 15.

Separation of Scandal & State

In a country that largely turns a blind eye to their elected officials’ private lives, French politicians have largely blamed Pavlensky, not Griveaux. Fellow REM party members like Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner voiced their support for Griveaux, with Castaner warning that Pavlensky’s action is punishable by up to two years in jail. Opponents also jumped to Griveaux’s defense: Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor of Paris and Griveaux’s former opponent, told the press that this issue “is not worthy of the democratic debate we should be having…. [We should have] respect [for the] private life of people.” Even Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally and a frequent critic of REM, expressed that while Griveaux “has undoubtedly behaved irresponsibly… neither judges nor manipulators should be able to influence the course of an election.” Le Pen further suggested that Griveaux should not have stepped down for the sake of maintaining “French democracy.”

Joining the chorus of condemnations, far-right politician Sébastien Chenu pointed to the scandal’s subsequent political fallout as proof of the “Americanization” of French politics. “The Americanization of [French] political life is detestable,” he tweeted. “Democracy has nothing to gain from this ‘keyhole’ puritanism. Our country deserves better.” French politicians and commentators largely agreed with this sentiment, voicing concerns that France’s strict separation between private and public lives of elected officials may be ending. As Chenu had argued, many fear that this scandal may be signaling France’s shift towards more puritanical (or, as the French call it, “American”) socio-political values.

Political Affairs

Across the Atlantic in the United States, the country France once helped create, sex scandals involving elected officials are almost as old as the country itself: from Alexander Hamilton’s Reynolds Pamphlet to President Donald Trump’s past with Stormy Daniels, political sex scandals are deeply ingrained in U.S. politics. Though the severity of the scandal’s impact on a politician’s career varies case by case, prominent instances such as former-President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky and former-Representative Katie Hill’s (D-CA) relationship with her subordinate resulted in intense media scrutiny and political consequences, including impeachment and resignation, respectively.

Most of France seems to agree with Chenu that nobody is perfect and that public figures deserve to have their political achievements viewed separately from any personal failings or misconduct. The tabloid-worthy scandals that seem to constantly rock American politics may never surface in France, thanks to citizens’ and officials’ nonchalance over matters considered personal. Even if scandals do surface, they may even help the implicated politicians: former French President Hollande’s approval ratings ticked upward as news of his affairs and divorce spread. The public’s focus on the politics of their politicians, in return for politicians’ personal freedom, seems like a bargain both sides want to keep. But where do officials and society draw the line between personal relationships and power dynamics?

Personal Affairs

Clinton’s affair with Lewinsky, an intern, may have been brushed aside as merely “personal” if emulated in France, but a person such as the president may be inseparable from the power of their position. Around the same time Clinton engaged in his affair, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was in an affair with a House of Representatives staffer 23 years younger than him. Relationships, especially those with public figures, may not easily be separated from the power of those public figures. Where Griveaux may have had his alleged affair consensually, perhaps more insidious, power-warped relationships lurk under the cover of what society considers the “personal.”