The vice president of France’s far-right Front National party has been outed by a French tabloid.
The Telegraph reports that the new issue of Closer magazine features photos of Florian Philippot and his boyfriend on a recent trip to Vienna along with the headline “Yes to love for all,” evoking France’s recent “Marriage for All” bill which legalized same-sex nuptials.
The move has outraged French politicians, whose private lives typically go unreported in France. And it’s super awkard for the Front National party, whose attitude toward gay folks has run the gamut from ambivalent to homophobic. FN’s leader, Marine Le Pen, slammed the tabloid, calling its revelation about Philippot “a very grave violation of individual liberties.”
Even members of opposing political parties spoke out against the privacy breach. Nicolas Bays, a straight MP who in January made headlines for promoting marriage equality his way, labeled the magazine’s actions “unacceptable,” saying, “Even if I abhor [Philippot’s] ideas, the right to a private life is sacred.”
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Closer‘s editor, Laurence Piau, said the magazine’s decision to run the photos was in the public’s interest. “Florian Philippot is a high-profile figure, he’s the most invited guest on morning media shows after Marine Le Pen, and the FN is a party like any other” she told Europe 1 radio.
Philippot says he will file an official complaint against the magazine.
Thankfully, the American press would never do such a thing.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
#Spring-time for Hit-ler and Ger-man-eeey*….
(*or substitute Vichy)
Ladbrook
A private life is NOT sacred if your private life is identical to the one you want to deny to everyone else. When closeted homosexuals join political parties that are wildly homophobic and campaign on that issue, they do not deserve the privacy they demand. Walk the walk, Mr Philippot, or expect to be exposed.
Garrett
If this were in America, he’d get the same treatment (I’m talking to you Lindsey Graham!!!).
I look at it this way: if a politician campaigns against legalizing marijuana, and a photographer snaps a pic of him loading a bong, then he should expect to be exposed. Same thing here. Same exact thing.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
As they say: “In the best interests of full disclosure.”
Leonard Woodrow
For an MP to indulge in the very thing his party campaigns against is the height of hypocrisy, and should be outed every time. God knows there is little enough honesty in politics … don’t make it even worse.
jason smeds
Ladbrook,
I totally agree with you. If a politician runs on a certain platform, his private life is fair game if that platform conflicts with his private life.
0gaugebear
Closer’s editor has done the world a favour – the same old flavour of homophobic hypocrisy from the right wing the world over – and in France it smells like rotting epoisses. Why shouldn’t he be hauled out of the closet kicking and screaming?
France is such an outdated anachronism – in a not so quaint way. Never has any country so condescendingly deigned to extend equal human rights to male homosexuals.
Time to haul France kicking and screaming into the twenty first century. Let the politicians eat cake.
Trippy
@jason smeds: Well shit, now I have to kill myself.
Trippy
@jason smeds: If you’re going to go around agreeing with everyone instead of spewing your normal idiocy and hatred, then a lot of us are going to have to rethink everything.
blackberry finn
Hypocrites need no protection.
Arconcyyon
YummUps !!!! French Francês Mem is ! the is photto name politicians is the FREAKED montrons dragion´s gay sorry ! The He His City País FRENCH FRNAÇÊS´S the like very love the producion´s the perfumy´s aromyyn´s restourantt´s cheff´s is menbren´s mem active is like the good anus mem passive travesti look is girll´s makke dragg´s home pist clubl´s dence music ! off ! good is the gay potter polittican´s is cup gays ans love sttret mundi .
Saint Law
There are loads of gays in the National front and other far-right movements in Europe. I call them Rohmosexuals.
Saint Law
I mean why not just cut out the middle man and shoot yourself?
J.T.
This is consistent with the general hypocrisy and secretativeness of French politicians. Their sense of entitlement and superiority to the masses are sacrosanct principles that come before honesty, transparency, and integrity. Who should be surprised?
coursdesir
I am French and this is an accurate report. To us private life is really essential. So even a hateful jerk like him deserves to have it protected like any other man.
MCHG
I can’t for the life of me understand outing gay politicians. Do you for whatever reason feel entitled to have someone represent your point of view because they like the same set of genitals as you? As for the charges off hypocrisy, let me guess: just like the scores of gay republicans who have been accused of hypocrisy this guy opposes gay marriage and is not married to a man, opposes gay adoption yet has not adopted a child with another gay man, etc. Gay people are not supposed to, nor have they ever had, one unanimous opinion. If you want leftist policies then vote for the left, but this idea of harassing people into voting your way is the most non democratic thing you can do. The idea that someone’s views on foreign policy, education, spending, etc. must reflect the views of his imaginary community is absurd. If this man loses his job over the outing two things will happen: he’ll be replaced by someone who certainly isn’t gay, you would have cost a gay man his life’s work, behaving no different than the homophobic straight people who would try to get him fired or killed were he not a politician. The price for gay liberation is that sometimes gay people will do things that piss other people off.
Desert Boy
France has surpassed Poland as the most homophobic EU nation.
lcandela123
What planet are the French politicians from?
The far right moves to viciously curtail the rights of LGBT people in the most intimate aspects of their personal lives. Apparently, this is OK. But apparently what is not OK, is for the press to report on the hypocrisy of the leaders of the far right in those same intimate aspects of their personal lives.
What kind of distilled, purified existence do French politicians believe they are living? What imaginary place to they think they inhabit?
jimontp
@coursdesir: I’ve always appreciated the French adult view about privacy in sexual matters, but this is different. This guy leads a party with virulent homophobia at its roots and in its platform. He is a blatant hypocrite, even more than Senator Lindsay Graham. Come on, even French politicians deserve to be called out for condemning their fellow gays.
Ladbrook
@MCHG: For me, the problem is as Orwell said it would be: some are more equal than others. Yes, we call out hypocrisy. All types. You may think he’s just a gay man with a different set of values, but he and his fellow patriots are actively working to suppress the rights of others. In politics you use the tools you have, and if calling out a hypocrite works (be it on social issues, defense issues, or economic ones) then that’s what you do.
I get that this is not typical behavior in France, but I also “get” that the French weren’t much for calling out Nazis either. And we all know how that turned out.
petensfo
@coursdesir: I love the idea of protected privacy but am curious if the level of hypocrisy has allowed for a difference of opinion in the French national media?
Are there any opinion polls that support his outing? Does the public feel the same as the politicians?
Saint Law
Post was murderated.
This one goes out to MCHG. “Do you for whatever reason feel entitled to have someone represent your point of view because they like the same set of genitals as you?”
Do you for whatever reason feel like engaging in obtuse misdirection? No need to answer that.
Oh and nobody is harassing him in to voting their way – how would that even work? They’re harassing him to make his life difficult, because he’s a creepy self loathing bigoted little quisling working for a party that actively campaigns to curtail gay rights and those of other minorities – if not annul them altogether.
If by so doing it has the additional effect of intimidating his fellow fascist kweens then that is, of course, a bonus.
“If this man loses his job…you would have cost a gay man his life’s work.”
That actually made me laugh out loud.
MCHG
@petensfo: You have to understand French culture to see why politicians and citizens would decry an outing that most certainly aids their party. Americans are seen as celebrity obsessed in much of Europe. When Hollande’s affair was exposed the people were disgusted because his personal problems don’t impede him from serving. Europeans have a more realistic and less sensationalistic interpretation of sexuality, so outing and exposing someone’s affairs is seen for what it is, partisan hackery. The politics of personal destruction are not popular in Europe because they’re nothing but distractions from the issues facing regular people.
Rob Seneca
@coursdesir: Even when they use their public lives to destroy the lives of others?
Palto
Team Saint Law.
His far right buddies are naturally pissed off at this outing. How are they supposed to demonize gay people properly when one of their own is a skin flute player?
Anybody who thinks that this two faced hypocrite deserves any privacy while being on the DL is an idiot.
Saint Law
@Palto: True dat.
MCHG
@Saint Law: you’re exactly the type of person that I expect to support political outings. I’f you are making a personal attack against someone then be honest about what you’re doing. Dressing outing up as some sanctimonious stand against hypocrisy is nonsense. Gays worked for the Kennedy administration back when democrats were homophobic too. Gays worked for Reagan and Bush as well. This notion that a gay man owes it to anyone to be a liberal is comical. Conservatives are not taking rights away from anyone. Liberals are fighting in order to make gay marriage a right. You act as if Philippot snuck in the middle of the night and re wrote the constitution so that gays cant get married anymore. Own up to your bitter, queeny personal attacks and stop pretending like this guy, or the numerous gay conservatives before him committed some grave ethical travesty.
Saint Law
@MCHG: “The politics of personal destruction are not popular in Europe because they’re nothing but distractions from the issues facing regular people.”
And we’ve achieved peak stupid. Or are the gay and black and brown people the NF seek to vilify and persecute not “regular”?
“partisan hackery”. It was the partisans who helped defeat fascism last rime round you unconscionable nob.
Saint Law
@MCHG: I’m as much a liberal as you are self aware, shitpot.
If it were up to me fascists and their boneless apologists would be lined up against a wall.
Palto
@MCHG: yes I’m sure you were very upset when Anthony Weiner’s webcam liaisons werer outed by Breibart. Please provide us with links to comments sections where you defended his right to privacy.
Saint Law
@Palto: I’m still chuckling at its indignation that the poor gurl’s CAREER might be negatively impacted.
MCHG
@Saint Law: God, you’re an idiot. No one said minorities aren’t regular people. I was speaking in respect to the strategies used in French political debate. In France it’s considered rude to use personal affairs as a way to destroy a political opponent because just about everyone has secrets that can destroy them in the eyes of someone. A leader having an affair, straight or gay, is not considered scandalous because the affair has nothing to do with the lives of everyday people. That’s their own personal hell to deal with. Now if said politician was stealing money or breaking the law, then it would be of public interest because it has a direct impact on the public’s life. In France, news of a politician’s life is not based on interest but on but on impact. Unless a politician is doing something in their personal lives that has a direct impact on the citizenry, few people are sanctimonious enough to start fishing for dirty laundry, because everyone has dirty laundry.
MCHG
@Palto: I actually was upset that Anthony Weiner went down the way he did. He had prior experience and had some good ideas in terms of education. I would have voted for him had it mattered.
Palto
@MCHG: what you’re saying is that this news of Florion romping around with another guy should be a non-issue. So then why all the outrage if his little affair has no effect on the lives of everyday people?
MCHG
@Palto: not should be, is, to the overwhelming majority of French people. Who’s outrage? If you’re referring to the politicians, then its simple: the invasion of privacy is extremely out of character in French society. While we can laugh off guys like Aaron Schock, even have a NYT article about his alleged gayness, the French are not used to their politicians being tabloid fodder. It just wouldn’t occur to French people to place higher standards on their politician’s personal lives. They’re expected to be human like the rest of us. So when a tabloid tries to make an issue out of the very common fact that some people are not comfortable being openly gay, a society that values privacy and doesn’t elevate their politicians to godly status like Americans do, is going to revolt against them.
Damich
Oh please… If your a hot shot closet public figure working for the homophobe party then you deserve to be blown out of the closet like rainbow bright out of a canon. No sympathies for two faced people that keep us down for no good reason.
andy0529
@Garrett: What about Aaron Shock? He’s been caught coming about a Gay book store by TMZ with his BF…..crickets! His anti-gay voting record is unbelieveable!
Garrett
@andy0529: You are correct. He was exposed, by TMZ and gay bloggers. Also exposed was Drudge, Armstrong Williams, Congressman Drier, etc… The mainstream media likes to pick and choose which stories they give legs to. I can’t speak for why those stories didn’t go viral, but they are out there for those who are curious. With respect to Aaron, it’s probably because he doesn’t hold a major leadership position. Had it been Boehner or Rand Paul, or Cruz, etc… then yeah, the media would have run it into the ground 24/7.
BadSeed
Right to a private life is sacred? Tell that to the Health Dept. and City Attorney in San Francisco where private spaces, i.e., lockable cubicles, are banned in bathhouses. Last week marks the 30th anniversary of the SF court order which required the removal doors from bathhouse cubicles and monitoring of sexual activity. Have SF’s LGBT politicians said “boo”? Of course not: they’re till celebrating a gay marriage victory handed them by a straight mayor two straight attorneys, and a 4/5 technical decision in the Supreme Court.
wpewen
@Desert Boy: I don’t get it that somehow France itself is homophobic, like Poland(?) Obviously the right in France is but..
jwtraveler
@blackberry finn: Well, I’d say that they ‘deserve’ no protection, but we’re on the same side.
crowebobby
@Trippy: A “Like” from me. Witty and succinct. Gave me my first spontaneous smile this morning.
NoCagada
I SAY SEMENBOARD HIM!
tjr101
Any politician that works either in front or behind the scenes at homophobic organizations need to be outed. The very policies these quislings trumpet and try to place into law are affecting the private lives of gay citizens. They deserve to be outed and embarrassed.
billforsyth
Whilst it is true that the European convention on human rights does allow every citizen the right to a private life and a right of privacy it also allows for a public interest clause which is of course very different from a right of the public to know the details of anothers private life .
If you are a prominent politician and if you choose to enter the various social debates about lifestyle etc of others which in effect means their private lives then how can you be surprised if others choose to debate your own private life .
The French national front is a major European as well as a French political party and therefore it is naive to imagine that the European press will not look for apparent inconsistencies in the public and private personas of prominent European nations .Perhaps the lesson for Conservative and far right politicians is the one which British Conservatives learned so painfully which is do not enter the private and personal arena of peoples lives if you value your own right to privacy .
Palto
@billforsyth: you hit the nail on the head. How anybody can argue that these closeted politicians should enjoy privacy on their DL excursions while try to ruin other gay people’s personal lives is nothing but laughable. They will be outed and there’s not a damn thing they or any of their apologists (like one of the posters we have on this thread) can do about it,