politicians

The 54-year-old kissed the young woman on the breast after she refused he embrace her, prompting calls for his prosecution amid a series of recent damning revelations of sexual assault and harassment by both TV personalities and politicians in France. 

Presidential hopeful Emmanuel Macron says French politicians typically throw taxpayers' money at problems instead of tackling them head-on.

Tepid French public reaction to political scandals, and also to the romantic affairs of presidents, is often at odds with how the same events would be judged in other developed countries. In parallel to this, France has some of the toughest laws in Europe protecting personal privacy – and which are now cited in legal action taken against the magazine Closer by actress Julie Gayet following its revelations of her secret relationship with President François Hollande. Here, Philippe Riès argues that the privacy laws used by politicians is too often a tool to disguise the institutionalised excesses and corruption of a monarchic elite, served by a largely submissive media and reinforced by a puzzling public indifference that places democracy in danger.

After a tax-dodging scandal and ahead of likely stiff new disclosure standards, politicians are publishing details of their properties and assets.