Paris (AFP)

There are those who discover the facts, dumbfounded, and those who knew without seeing too much evil: the revelations, to be published Thursday, of a publisher seduced, adolescent, by the writer Gabriel Matzneff make collide two eras and two looks at pedophilia.

The self-proclaimed taste of the 83-year-old writer for the "under 16s" and for sex tourism with young boys in Asia had so far caused little eyebrow. The release of "Consent" by Vanessa Springora, 47, seems to be changing the situation.

Bringing his "support" to "all the victims" of the writer, the Minister of Culture Franck Riester thus recalled on Saturday that "the literary aura is not a guarantee of impunity".

Another sign of this shift: the sequence where Bernard Pivot interviews Gabriel Matzneff went viral (nearly 900,000 views) and caused a scandal, almost thirty years after its broadcast. He is quizzically questioned about his sexual conquests. With the exception of the Quebec writer Denise Bombardier, throwing to him that he would have "accounts to render to justice", nobody reacts.

Trying to defend himself, the former host of "Apostrophes" Bernard Pivot pleaded the principle of "other times, other customs", saying that in "the 70s and 80s, literature came before morals".

"We are more or less the intellectual and moral products of a country and, above all, of an era," he added, provoking a wave of indignation.

- "A little ashamed" -

"I am of the age to have known a time when these things were said on television. Matzneff, Gide we did not care about their mouths but we were not more revolted than that. Pedophiles assumed. I I'm a little ashamed. Even more than that (...) ", for his part conceded the former Guignol of Info Bruno Gaccio.

Before being unanimously condemned, pedophilia was tolerated - or even more - in the 1970s by intellectuals invoking sexual freedom and the legacy of May 68 with its slogan "it is forbidden to prohibit".

Petitions have been signed, like that of 1977 relayed by Liberation, to defend three men prosecuted for the sexual assault of children from 12 to 13 years old. Among the signatories were Jack Lang and Bernard Kouchner.

This tolerance continued in the 1980s, the period in which Vanessa Springora's book unfolded, before the tide turned in the 1990s, leading to the unanimous condemnation of pedophilia and the mea culpa of the newspapers which had it. defended.

A reversal born from the start of speaking out for victims and the proliferation of children's defense associations, underlines Pierre Verdrager, author of a book on "how pedophilia has become scandalous". "We are beginning to realize that this liberation of bodies can cause problems when it concerns the sexuality of children with adults," says the sociologist.

The crimes of Marc Dutroux in Belgium, the Outreau case in France will reinforce this feeling.

- Never convicted -

Despite this context of denouncing pedophilia, "freedom of expression is important. I would remind you that Matzneff has not been condemned," said Etienne Gernelle, director of Le Point, where the writer writes a column.

"The same newspapers which, thirty years ago, said that love with children is good, in the name of a sixty-eight morality, would like to fire these same people", underlines the one who hardly hears himself separate from his pen.

And to denounce a climate where some call to wipe off the artists implicated in cases of sexual violence.

This phenomenon, called "cancel culture" in the Anglo-Saxon world, concerns both the director Roman Polanski, targeted by a new accusation of rape, just before the release of his last film in the fall, as the painter Gauguin (1848- 1903), because of her sexual relations with Tahitian adolescent girls.

"For the moment, there is a great wave of indignation, but the most important thing is that someone speaks, that we have the opportunity to have another bell", not only that of Matzneff, believes Pierre Verdrager, who sees in the publication of Vanessa Springora's book "an important step".

"Because it is with the voice of the victims that the pedophile question has evolved".

© 2019 AFP