The Matzneff affair embarrassingly invites itself into the municipal campaign of Anne Hidalgo in Paris through its assistant to Culture, Christophe Girard, who was heard several hours Wednesday as a witness on his links with the accused writer of pedophilia. The former mayor of the 4th arrondissement, pillar of the Parisian majority, was heard "for four hours" , according to a relative, at the Central Office for the Suppression of Violence against Persons (OCRVP) in Nanterre by the police officers responsible for the investigation "for rape of a minor" under 15 years old targeting Gabriel Matzneff. Christophe Girard came out "at the end of the afternoon," said this source close to the Parisian elected official.
"Christophe Girard was heard this afternoon (...) as a witness" , according to this source. "He answered all the questions that were asked of him . " "No other hearing of any kind is planned , " added the relative. The investigators were particularly interested in the financial support which the writer received in the 1980s from the Maison Yves Saint Laurent, of which Christophe Girard was secretary general between 1986 and 1987.
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The editor Vanessa Springora published in early January an autobiographical novel, The Consent , in which she denounces the ravages of her relationship under the influence of the claimed pedophile writer Gabriel Matzneff in the 1980s. It was the day after publication from this testimony, on January 3, that an investigation for "rape of minors" was opened by the Paris prosecutor's office. Investigators have since carried out several searches, in particular at Gallimard, one of its publishers, at the Parisian home as well as at the Italian hotel where currently resides the man who claimed in his books his attraction for the "under 16s" and for sex tourism with little boys in Asia.
In an article called “A pedophile writer on the dock. And the French elites too, " the New York Times recalled on February 11 how Mr. Girard had, in 1987, provided financial assistance to Gabriel Matzneff. The author himself wrote in The apple of my eyes , his journal for the years 1986-1987, that Christophe Girard announced to him that the Maison Yves Saint Laurent would finance, "as long as he wishes" , the costs of the hotel in which he lived hidden from view in the Saint-Germain-des-Près district. Matzneff, long tolerated or even praised in the Parisian literary world, regularly saw in this hotel Vanessa Springora, then aged 15.
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Interviewed recently by AFP, Christophe Girard denied any proximity with Mr. Matzneff, who dedicated La Prunelle to me and who described him in the 2000s as one of his "closest" friends . "The person with whom I have lived for 25 years has never met him," insisted Christophe Girard. “A close friend is someone who goes on vacation with you, who dines at your place, where you go. Well, it isn't! ” . "We knew nothing" of the facts today alleged against the writer, he further explained.
But at City Hall, we have been following for several weeks with a worried eye a case that the Hidalgo camp would have been spared a few days before the municipal elections (March 15 and 22). “We handled the case in high places. Christophe Girard spoke with Anne (Hidalgo), Emmanuel Grégoire (campaign director) and Jean-Louis Missika (president of the campaign platform), ” told AFP a member of the public. History has also challenged its running mates in the 18th arrondissement, where Christophe Girard is a candidate in fifth position. During a meeting in this sector two weeks ago, the tone rose. “The young generation did not understand that 30 years ago, I did not denounce. I did pedagogy. I explained ... and you can check, the list has not changed, " said Christophe Girard at AFP.
Read also: Matzneff case: Vanessa Springora was heard by investigators
According to a relative of the mayor of Paris, Christophe Girard indicated during the crisis meetings to have "obeyed the orders of Pierre Bergé" , companion of Yves Saint Laurent and co-founder of his fashion house, who had asked him to settle the Gabriel Matzneff's hotel. "It doesn't make him an accomplice of pedophilia," said the source. Pierre Bergé, who died in 2017, “helped a lot of people, known and unknown. My role was to announce the good news to the one who was in shit, " said AFP Christophe Girard, who now wonders if Pierre Bergé had not paid the hotel costs of Matzneff "on his personal funds" .
The difficulty of Christophe Girard's stories is that "he talks about the dead, it is the strength and the fragility" of his explanations, comments an official of the Town Hall. For another politician close to Anne Hidalgo, Christophe Girard is "an excellent expiatory victim in this settling of accounts from one generation to another, in this case the 68 generation" .
Read also: Consent of minors: the law defies the Matzneff affair
