French minister clings to job after 'sex with boys' row

Mitterrand faced calls for his resignation this week over his autobiographical novel "The Bad Life" which describes paying for "boys" in brothels in Thailand and Indonesia.

(...) Mitterrand was forced to make the television appearance after left and right wing politicians demanded he respond to the allegations that his own memoir endorses sex tourism.

"I absolutely condemn sexual tourism. I condemn paedophilia, in which I have never in any way participated, and all the people who accuse me of that type of thing should be ashamed," the 62-year-old told TF1 television.

Mitterrand has previously explained that in his book, which was marketed as a memoir but which he now says its not "entirely autobiographical", he had used the term "boys" to describe all males.

Asked if he regretted paying for sex with "boys" in Thailand, and if he had made a mistake by so doing, he replied that he had committed "a mistake, without doubt, a crime, no.

"Because I was each time with people who were my age and who were consenting," he said.

Mitterrand acknowledged that had "committed an offence against the idea of dignity, human dignity."

(...) He also warned that "one must not confuse homosexuality with paedophilia." Mitterrand's defence of his book back in 2005 was broadly accepted and the book was praised for its shocking honesty and literary quality.

But now, as a minister in a government that has prosecuted sex tourists, his position is more difficult.

The passages in "The Bad Life" that have sparked controversy deal with the hero's visits to brothels and boy bars in Thailand and Indonesia.

The hero describes the mixture of feverish excitement and guilt he feels as he hands over money for sex with "boys" whose age he does not state.

"All the rituals of this market of youths, this slave market, excite me enormously," the book says.

"The profusion of attractive and immediately available boys puts me into a state of desire that I no longer need to hide or check. Money and sex, I am at the heart of my system," he wrote.