A new novel by French President Emmanuel Macron's Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire – containing one breathlessly erotic passage that has gone viral – has forced the government to explain how he finds the time for such a project in a period of economic trouble for so many.
"Fugue américaine" (American Fugue) is the 13th book by Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, 54, who has held his post since Macron came to power in 2017.
Le Maire has been on the front lines of defending Macron's controversial pension reform, which has sparked months of sometimes violent protests but which the government says is necessary to balance the books.
He also faces pressure to help the French public deal with the rising cost of living, including a surges in fuel prices amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
But "American Fugue" inhabits a wholly different world.
It is devoted to legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, told through the story of brothers Franz and Oskar Wertheimer, who travel to Cuba to attend one of his concerts and whose lives are then turned upside down.
Not have 'a minute'
But it is one single page of the novel, widely shared and the target of mockery on social media, that has taken all the attention.
It describes Oskar having sex with a woman named as Julia in excitedly erotic and also deeply explicit terms.
An MP for the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, François Ruffin, said Le Maire should not have "a minute, an hour, a week of his time to devote to writing a book" when the French are experiencing "big worries about inflation".
In an unfortunate coincidence for the minister that the novel was published on Thursday, just hours before credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded the country's debt worthiness to AA- from AA.
It also comes amid controversy over social economy minister Marlène Schiappa, who posed for Playboy, albeit mostly clothed.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne took umbrage over the April cover shoot, calling Schiappa to tell her that it "was not at all appropriate, especially in the current period".
Le Maire's colleague Olivier Dussopt admitted he had not read the new novel but defended the minister's right to write it.
"This shows that there are feelings ... behind the suits of the ministers," he told BFMTV, adding he had seen the erotic passage and it "made him smile".
'Personal balance'
Le Maire, who has written five of his 13 books in the last four years alone, said he has no trouble mixing this literary and political careers.
"If there were only politics – without the freedom that literary and romantic creation gives – politics would not be enough," he said last week in an interview with AFP.
Le Maire is far from the first French political heavyweight to have literary ambitions. In retirement, former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who died in 2020 at age 94, gained a penchant for writing racy novels.
These included "The Princess and the President" of 2009, which recounts a romance between a French leader and a British princess widely seen as the late Princess Diana.
Macron's former prime minister Édouard Philippe, seen by some as a possible successor to the president, has co-authored two thrillers.
In a statement on Twitter, Le Maire acknowledged that many followers were curious about "how I find the time to write while I am a minister".
He said that while he was devoted to his job he had also learned to find a "personal balance".
"Some people go to museums, cinemas, concerts, the football. Others do the gardening or go hiking. As for me, I write," he said.
"It's a need that makes it worthwhile to get up early, go to bed late, and to devote weekends and holidays to this."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
