Griveaux case: "Transparency has become uncontrollable"

LE FIGARO. - Benjamin Griveaux has given up trying to run for mayor of Paris following the dissemination of sex videos on social networks. What to think about it?

Olivier BABEAU. - Politicians must understand that there is no longer any privacy for them. Any conversation, or almost, any digital exchange is likely to be disclosed. It is not only the extent and the uncontrollable nature of the dissemination that is new, but also the way in which this information is received. In the past, people implicitly accepted the duplicity of the politician. Rumors have always run on the escapades of such and such. Authorized circles have always known. But the domain of the intimate, of which sex life is obviously a part, was in our culture entirely separate from the public sphere. One can wonder about the causes of this French specificity. It is probably linked to the Catholic ethos which makes vices a private matter between God and us,

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