A
few weeks ago as I was flipping through the channels of French TV, I came
across a documentary called ‘La maladie du pouvoir’ (literally, ‘The power
illness’). I figured this would be another French political documentary and
wasn’t extremely interested, but I kept it on anyway.
The
first hour of the documentary got me hooked: starting with Georges Pompidou
(president from 1969-1974), the film basically recounted how several French
presidents had been severely ill, terminally ill in some cases, and yet their
illnesses were kept a secret from the public, and even the president’s
families.
For
Pompidou, the documentary showed how his failing health (due to blood cancer)
was becoming more and more obvious in the fourth year of his presidency, but
the Elysée (the French equivalent to the White House) continued to deny any
rumors of illness. The last images showed Pompidou isolated, exhausted and very
ill. His death was announced to a very surprised public, who thought he was
ill, but did not realize the gravity of his illness.
After
Pompidou, the even more surprising segment was on François Mitterrand (president
from 1981-1995). Because of the public outcry at Pompidou’s death, Mitterrand
promised to publish regular medical reports to the public every six months, to
prove he was in good health. Within months of his election, Mitterrand learned
from his personal doctor that he had prostate cancer that had spread to his
bones and lower pelvis.
Rather
than admitting Mitterrand to a hospital, he chose to spend the next 7 years of
his presidency fighting the cancer in secret, with risky steroid treatments
administered in the dead of the night by his personal physician. Mitterrand’s
doctor followed him everywhere, and his cancer was considered a ‘state secret.’
Even Mitterrand’s family was kept out of the loop.
Miraculously,
his cancer responded to treatment and he was able to complete his seven year
term as president, all without anyone knowing. Then, without consulting his
physician, Mitterrand decided to run again
for president in 1988, even though he was still undergoing cancer treatment.
This
story gets even more interesting: after Mitterrand’s death, his physician, Dr.
Gubler, published a book called The Big
Secret retelling the story of Mitterrand’s illness. Gubler’s book was
promptly removed from all stores only two days after its release. He was then
personally tried for « une intrusion particulièrement grave dans l'intimité de la vie
privée et familiale du président» (a
particularly grave intrusion into the private life of the president). He went
to prison for four months, and his titles for several prestigious institutions
(including the Légion d’Honneur) were revoked for life.
(for
more on this, see: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/how-mitterrand-bet-his-life--and-his-country-big-secrets-big-lies-mitterands-french-gamble-mitterands-big-secret-was-the-14year-lie-1325011.html)
In
more recent events, Nicolas Sarkozy (president from 2007-2012) has been in the
news for his alleged involvement in what’s called the Bettencourt affair. Since
2010 there has been an investigation involving Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to
the l’Oréal company, who was thought to have helped illegally finance Sarkozy’s
presidential campaign. This affair was mentioned in the press while Sarkozy was
president, but because of France’s law of presidential immunity, Sarkozy could
not be investigated further or tried until the end of his term.
In
my opinion there are two major concepts at work here in the examples of these
three former presidents: a sacred image of the state, and a good example, the
epitome even, of the French respect for private life.
Examining
further the idea of the sacred state, in a way Pompidou and Mitterrand were
putting themselves and their own health behind the wellness of the state. They believed the president should protect
his/her image so that the public believes its elected official is the most
capable, healthy individual possible to assume this job. It is understandable
why they both chose to hide their health problems. The public surely would have
reacted strongly if they had found out about the severity of both men’s illnesses.
But this also means that it was not possible to show the president as human, that is, a person with flaws and
restricted by the limits of his/her body, as we all are. The ‘health’ of the
state was more important than their own physical health.
Sarkozy’s
trial can also support this idea of a sacred state, it is the legal/governmental
system itself which will not allow the president to be tried for anything not
related to his function as president. This is to protect the president from any
parties that could try to intimidate or manipulate him/her while in office, and
also to allow the president to focus on affairs of the state.
In
terms of private life, the trial against Mitterrand’s personal physician (a man
who was closer to Mitterrand than his own family, accompanying him to all
political events) shows just how much the private life a president is
considered confidential, even after his death.
In
a similar way, presidential ‘immunity’ protects the president’s private life in
a legal sense.
In
general, private life in France is more protected and sheltered than in the
United States, and this can be viewed at its epitome in the treatment of these
different presidents, whose private lives are protected by the law. This is a
very different mentality from the trial against President Clinton, or even
President Obama wishing his wife a happy anniversary on television!
And
so, I’ll come back to where I started: I still find these anecdotes about
Pompidou and Mitterrand fascinating in the sense that they were both able to
hide a secret so enormous from an entire country. At the same time, it’s very
disturbing to think that they were both so ill, and insisted on holding on to
their positions. The evidence, though, speaks for itself: in France, you don’t
mess with the private lives of presidents.
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