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7 French politicians who have written erotic literature

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7 French politicians who have written erotic literature
Photo by Thierry ZOCCOLAN / AFP

The new novel from France's finance minister has been raising eyebrows because of a certain explicit scene - but he's far from the first French politician to write erotica.

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Having a certain literary flair is widely regarded as an important skill for politicians in France, and it's very common for ministers to write books before, during and after their terms in office.

While most of them stick to political subject matters, there are also plenty who branch out into literature. And among those writers, erotica is a popular subject matter.

Here's a look at some of the most well-known erotic novel writers among France's current and former ministers.

1 Bruno Le Maire

Current finance minister Bruno Le Maire is in the news because of his new novel - Fugue americaine, which tells the story of 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.

It's not an erotic novel, but there is one eyebrow-raising sex scene that has been widely shared on social media;

 

 

The thing is, this is pretty tame for Le Maire, who during his student days wrote erotic novels under the pseudonym Duc William (Duke William).

Since then, he's published 13 books under his own name, including a political work that includes this startlingly romantic description of his boss Emmanuel Macron, who apparently has: "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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2 Marlene Schiappa

The social economy minister is another who published erotic novels before entering politics, including Osez les sexfriends (Dare the hookup), Sexe, mensonge et banlieues chaudes (Sex, lies and hot suburbs) and Comment transformer votre mec en Brad Pitt en 30 jours (How to transform your guy into Brad Pitt in 30 days).

Before entering politics, Schiappa was a feminist blogger and writer and has defended her recent (clothed) appearance in Playboy magazine by saying that it's all part of a woman's right to chose what she does with her body.

3 Edouard Philippe

The former prime minister, current mayor of Le Havre and widely rumoured 2027 presidential candidate has also written several books, including Dans l'ombre (In the shadows) in which the hero - a young politician on the campaign trail - has several erotic encounters and also treats the reader to an almost forensic level of detail on the exact type of breasts that he prefers (we'll spare you the full passage but it seems he's a Goldilocks type - not too big, not too small).

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He followed this up with a work about the nature of the role of prime minister, which was decidedly less erotic, unless you enjoyed the passage about him and Emmanuel Macron discussing their favourite British and American TV series.

4 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

But combining erotic literature with politics is far from a new phenomenon in France, former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing penned several steamy novels after he left the Elysée in 1981. 

The one that really set tongues wagging was La Princesse et le Président - in addition to the sex scenes set in the presidential palace, it also amplified the rumours about about the ex president and Princess Diana.

5 Aurélie Filippetti

It seems fitting that the culture minister should have an interest in literature, and the holder of the post between 2012 and 2014 was Aurélie Filippetti, who was a published author with several books to her name before entering politics.

Her novel Un homme dans la poche (a man in the pocket) was more of a romance than erotica, but it included several explicit sex scenes that were widely republished in newspapers once she became a minister.

She's now in charge of cultural matters for Anne Hidalgo's town hall in Paris and continues to write, although her later works are more political in nature.

6 Clémentine Autin

The MP for the far-left La France Insoumise party published her first novel in 2022, a combined romantic and erotic work which also tackles more serious subjects like sexual violence and the political struggle.

The daughter of a singer and an actress, the rest of Autin's published writers are political works and essays on social subjects.

7 Emmanuel Macron?

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.

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