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, the mainstay 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.
"Not a close friend"
The investigators were particularly interested in the financial support from which the writer benefited in the 1980s from the Maison Yves Saint Laurent, of which Christophe Girard was secretary general between 1986 and 1987. In an article entitled "A pedophile writer on the dock. And the French elites too, "the New York Times recalled on February 11 how Christophe 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. Gabriel Matzneff, long tolerated or even praised in the Parisian literary world, regularly saw in this hotel Vanessa Springora, then aged 15.
Interviewed recently by AFP, Christophe Girard denied any proximity with Gabriel 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 with you, where you go. Well, it is not! ". "We knew nothing" of the facts today alleged against the writer, he further explained.
The case followed "in high places"
But at City Hall, we have been following with concern for several weeks 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), ”confides a close friend of the council.
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 to AFP.
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 those who were in shit, "said AFP Christophe Girard, who now wonders if Pierre Bergé had not paid the hotel costs of Mr. 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 Hôtel de Ville. 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 generation 68".
- Anne Hidalgo
- municipal
- Paris
- Gabriel Matzneff
- Society