Jack Lang, the unbeatable<

Il a traversé la pandémie sur un nuage. Un léger Covid asymptomatique, rien senti, ses habituelles virées à Marrakech ont préservé sa belle humeur et sa bonne mine. Le visage est tout doré, cheveux mousseux, chemise outremer et sourire étincelant, ravi de voir la Seine s’épanouir sous les fenêtres de son bureau, au 8e étage de l’Institut du monde arabe. « Monsieur le président… le masque»», rappellent gentiment ses conseillers et il hausse les épaules, décroise ses baskets Camper, demande un thé vert, un soupçon de sucre. Jack Lang savoure, le printemps s’annonce languien.

Lire aussi:Jack Lang : plaidoyer pour l'arabe à l'école

The commemorations of May 10, 1981 will honor the most faithful and popular Mitterrandiens.He will be the master of a conference organized at La Bastille with Mazarine Pingeot, and the star of numerous festivities, emissions, works greeting his heritage."Let the unique law of book live!"»(Verbes Association)), publishes Marie-Rose Guarniéri, bookseller in Montmartre, who wanted to celebrate the legislation having saved his profession against the distribution giants.A collective of researchers dissects "LANG years" (French documentation)), while sociologist Frédéric Martel, known for his explosive investigation "Sodoma" on the customs of the Vatican, plunged into hundreds of archives to edit "A cultural revolution.Said and written ”(Robert Laffont))."I had the image of a somewhat dilettaning lang, making great speeches and dancing on the tanks of the Gay Pride," he said.I discovered a hard worker.»»

We see him young minister throwing with François Mitterrand the major sites - from the Pyramid of the Louvre to the Opera Bastille -, we hear him flatter him, cover him with ideas, rarely contradict him. On le voit batailler, visionnaire, technique, s’accrochant à son budget, harcelant de notes tout l’appareil d’État, imaginant la Fête de la musique, du patrimoine ; défendant la liberté, les artistes, tous, écrivains, rappeurs, cinéastes – « Le ministère c’est leur maison»», disait-il. Au front contre l’impérialisme américain, Disney, La Cinq, Chirac qui le traitait de « pape du sida mental»» ; manœuvrier, passionné, obsessionnel, toujours, sur 1 312 pages.

« Dieu, c’est trop»», s’exclame Lang de son petit ton poudré qui enchante les humoristes.Caress on his Mao collar jacket then, below: "It all happened to me, I have nothing to do with it.»» Pas tout à fait vrai. Jack Lang a ouvert ses archives, impulsé ces ouvrages comme tant d’autres ces dernières années, dont une autobiographie achevée avec une plume de « Libération»», qu’il refuse de publier : « On est trop loin du compte.»» Et les Mémoires auxquels il s’attelle, de sa fine écriture bleue, ne le satisfont pas davantage : « Je suis beaucoup trop perfectionniste.»»

L’élection de Macron a secoué Lang : « J’aurais dû avoir son audace, court-circuiter le PS»», ruminait-il au printemps 2017.

Jack Lang would like to cement his legend.But he feels that he cannot lock everything.Curious animal, both lucid and limited, sincere and varnished, lean and prevented, popular and controversial.He knows that he will remain, with André Malraux, the Grand Minister of Culture, but he blames himself for never having conquered Paris, and more the Élysée.Mitterrand, who by dint of loyalty eventually loves him as a son, had pushed him to introduce himself.Lang remembers her words in Latche: "Go ahead, go for it," he said to me.»» L’héritier a voulu se présenter en 2007, il avait chargé ses fidèles de commencer à récolter des fonds, dicté un essai programmatique intitulé « Moi, vieux ?»».

He too stayed in the cellar, the momentum never took the PS.Ségolène Royal burned the politeness to him then, in 2011, DSK, which he always supported - even during the Sofitel scandal - and that he continues to see in Marrakech.It was Holland that he ultimately rallied and who, recognizing, appointed him to the Arab World Institute. L’élection de Macron a secoué Lang : « J’aurais dû avoir son audace, court-circuiter le PS»», ruminait-il au printemps 2017.The victory of Joe Biden, met a few years ago at the New York Met, galvanizes him: "Great, what a fishing. Si j’osais, je ferais comme lui…»» Il lui a envoyé, en janvier, un petit mot de félicitations, avant de twitter sa joie de voir déguerpir Trump, « cette saloperie humaine»».Lang, who hoped for some reactions, immediately accepted an interview on Europe 1.

Do you know theof color and type of your hair? Describe yourself in French, say the color of your hair, the shape… https://t.CO/YVOGRM2QY

— Adolfo Morales Mon Feb 19 16:42:17 +0000 2018

Et là, bam. La journaliste Sonia Mabrouk l’a entrepris sur l’affaire Duhamel, évoquant les « rumeurs»», sans expliciter, mais rappelant sa signature au bas d’une tribune demandant la décriminalisation des rapports sexuels entre adultes et mineurs, publiée dans « Le Monde»» en 1977 avec Sartre, Beauvoir, Barthes, Kouchner. « Une connerie»», a regretté Jack Lang avant de quitter le studio furieux. Il n’ignore rien de la « boue»» qui circule à son sujet, ses petites-filles chéries lui en parlent, Internet garde tout en mémoire, notamment ses propos tenus en 1991 au magazine « Gai Pied»» – « La sexualité puérile est encore un continent interdit, aux découvreurs du XXIe siècle d’en aborder les rivages.»»

"If you came for that ... abject.Enough of all these stories.»»

D’anciens collaborateurs se souviennent d’avoir vu leur « Jack»» honteusement interpellé lors de Gay Prides sur le thème : « Alors, tu aimes les petits garçons ?»» Depuis toujours, les suspicions bruissent.Difficult to avoid the subject, even if it means raging it, his voice actually tonne: "If you came for that ... abject.Enough of all these stories.»» Elles ont prospéré dès son ascension en 1982, notamment lors de l’affaire du Coral (du nom de ce centre pour enfants en difficulté victimes d’abus sexuels)), qui préoccupa Mitterrand, comme le révèle le commandant Christian Prouteau, alors chargé de la sécurité à l’Élysée : « Le président m’a demandé de regarder, l’affaire faisait du bruit dans la presse.I didn't find anything and, believe me, I looked for!They were dirty rumors that strangely never stopped.»»

En 2011, au « Grand Journal»» de Canal+, Luc Ferry évoque un ancien ministre qui « s’est fait poisser à Marrakech dans une partouze avec des petits garçons»». « Mauvaise langue»», note, sourire entendu, Alain Duhamel.At the time, all-Paris Glose.Jack Lang Mandate Maître Laurent Merlet, who successfully defended him against the attacks of polemicist Jean-Edern Hallier. Un huissier, porteur d’une « sommation interpellative»», frappe alors au domicile de Luc Ferry, qui botte en touche, affirmant n’avoir « jamais accusé personne»».

Cette même année 2011, Laurent Merlet a poursuivi en diffamation un homme prétendant, dans une vidéo très regardée, que sa fille de 4 ans avait été violée par des amis de son ex-femme, dont Jack Lang, lors d’une partie fine sur une péniche en 1999. Il a été condamné, n’ayant apporté aucune preuve, ni même établi sa bonne foi. « On réagit à chaque fois mais comment poursuivre toutes les ignominies sur Twitter ? C’est un puits sans fond»», se désole l’avocat.

And now the financial brigade is also interested in its costumes received as a gift, between 2003 and 2018

His client enrages: "Hynes without courage ... Anonymity is terrible, the negation of democracy.If I was Minister, I would make my big fight.»» Les réseaux se sont encore enflammés lorsque le site Atlantico a révélé qu’une étrange association liée à Lang, « pour la promotion de la politique culturelle nationale menée dans les années 1980 et 1990»», avait été financée par Jeffrey Epstein, en 2018, un an avant son incarcération pour crimes sexuels. « Stupide histoire»», balaie-t-il, jurant n’avoir rien su de la face obscure du milliardaire, qui lui a été présenté par Woody Allen et lui a versé, via sa fondation, près de 58 000 dollars pour un projet de documentaire… sur ses années rue de Valois.

And now the financial brigade is also interested in its costumes received as a gift, between 2003 and 2018, for an amount that would be around 500,000 euros.Lang names were found during a search of Smalto's boss."How dare to evoke this ridiculous thing?"he is annoyed.I have always been a fashion ambassador, other much more prestigious names have desired that I wear their outfits.»» Alaïa, Miyake, Gaultier ont effectivement habillé les époux Lang, ainsi que Thierry Mugler, qui s’est récemment fendu d’une lettre de défense, louant leur action pour la « maison mode»». « Lisez-la»», insiste l’incorrigible Jack.

Nothing dismantles it.The era has changed, not him.Forty years in the seas of power, its aura rue de Valois made it unbearable.And he sails, from one president to another.He finished, after having fought him so much, by conquering Chirac, just like Sarkozy who, under his presidency, told him some missions and still recently invited him to lunch. Hollande aussi a appris à apprécier Jack : « C’est une star»», observe-t-il, presque nostalgique « des petits mots à l’ancienne»» qu’il recevait à l’Élysée « quasiment chaque jour sur tout sujet»».It is Emmanuel Macron that he floods notes today, concocted with the same collaborators.And Monique, faithful to the post.

Elle est tout, l’épouse, mère de ses deux filles, la vigie, sensible, piquante, la « patronne»», comme l’appelait Coluche, celle qui apaise quand il dit « j’ai trop d’idées dans la tête»», celle qui ramène sur terre et figure au bas des archives, d’un trait de stylo Waterman : « Voir avec Monique»».At the Ministry of Culture, yesterday, as IMA today, she has always had her office.She is never far away on the phone, announcing her arrival to visit, with her friend Isabelle Huppert, the exhibition on the Arab divas, currently closed to the public.Here it is, very dapper, alive eyes, heeled sneakers, small body carved by 10 kilometers of daily walking.He admires his fuchsia lipstick, grips his hand."See how beautiful she is, my wife ... Without her, I would be nothing.»»

She smiles, mid-awethe.The age softens men, hers made him see all the colors.But finally, the complicity has been there since their meeting at the Nancy Conservatory.They were 17 years old and dreamed of the actors;She, Monique Buczynski, barely 1.50 meters, a doll, pampered by jewelers' parents, him, future law student, Sciences Po, all in hair and verve.Two children born in 1939, Jews, Jack, only by his father who, as a good anglophile called to resist, first wanted to call him Winston."I liked it right away," she recalls.He was original, he looked like this distinguished language, this passion for fashion.He seduced me by making me caramel ice cream.At the time, I was chopped, a little nanny, Jack trained me in his life, I later understood his demons, his wounds.»»

At 15, he saw his father, a great asset, a freemason, heir to a prosperous recovery enterprise, struck by a heart attack.He, the eldest of the five children, found himself on the front line, alongside his beloved mother, Marie-Luce.She looked like him, it seems, a little theatrical, esthete. Il parle de sa « beauté sidérante»» et du veuvage douloureux : « Elle est tombée sous la coupe d’un homme peu fréquentable, qui a voulu prendre le pouvoir à la maison.I then convinced it to go to friends in Cameroon.»» Inouï, on imagine l’influence du grand-père paternel, les déchirements… Il bredouille : « Allez, assez, c’est loin dans ma mémoire… La famille s’est alors disloquée.»» À Douala, Marie-Luce a conquis un Français, un commercial qui la ramènera à Paris dans un bel appartement avec vue sur la tour Eiffel.Jack then will find her.

At 20, he had only one idea: to trace his own road.Monique was pregnant, he married it and created in 1963 the World Theater of the Nancy University Theater Festival. C’est la matrice de tout, le lieu où se construit l’enfiévré qui, au même moment, joue « Caligula»», approche Mendès France et Mitterrand, décroche l’agrégation de droit public.The actor, the political, the lawyer.Already, he has the art of surrounding himself with the best, of capturing ideas, realizing them, without fear of exhausting those around him.It pulses in Nancy with shows unearthed worldwide, and here are actors in jeans, naked, workers, puppets, avant-garde creators like Bob Wilson or Pina Bausch.Each year, fifteen days, thirty rooms, a festival and, in the midst of a sexual revolution, sacred bamboches, happenings with communist dissidents, Chilean refugees.

Minister of Culture is the role of his life, the one he has never ceased to occupy.

Conquered youth, amazed press, Mitterrand comes to see the phenomenon.Jack shines, still on ardent coals but in mastery, less delved than his homosexual comrades who delight him happily.Monique twirls in miniskirt, busy managing artists, journalists, patrons;She holds the stock market cords - her husband hovers, never a penny in her pocket - and the pretty building that houses the stewardship with, on the top floor, their apartment.Sometimes everything mixes, the nanny of the girls is paid by the festival, when there are so many volunteers and technicians paid three kopecks.The discontent rises in 1975, strike, request for accounts, the director is threatened, his brother takes out the muscles: "Leave it alone.»» Claude Lang est revenu ravagé d’Algérie, hanté par la guerre, tête brûlée au point de tuer un homme dans un bar de Nancy, un soir de juin 1981.(Jack, who then had just been appointed rue de Valois, will propose his resignation to Mitterrand, who will refuse her and then climbed, in 1985, this brother who died today.))

In Nancy, the party has ended badly.The slingers obtained the resignation of Lang and recovered the accounts, entrusted to a young lawyer."The latter told us one day that he was sorry but that he had lost everything," recalls a former pillar of the festival.We ended up discovering that he had had Jack as a teacher.»» Au diable Nancy, l’artiste juriste a alors déjà conquis Paris, après avoir brièvement dirigé le théâtre de Chaillot, puis fêté son limogeage par le pouvoir giscardien, sur scène, chemise ouverte, sous le regard de Mitterrand.He thus turned into a left icon, national secretary of the PS, on the way to glory.

Everyone knows the rest.Minister of Culture is the role of his life, the one he has never ceased to occupy. Ses successeurs ont du mal à exister ; certains ont cherché son onction – Frédéric Mitterrand « ému par sa bienveillance»», Roselyne Bachelot dès sa nomination –, d’autres ont maudit son influence.Lang has reconstituted at the Institute of the Arab World, as he was rue de Valois.Flying, creative, no limit. Dès sa nomination, en 2013, il a refait un bureau, tout en cuir blanc, pour Monique, demandé des émoluments de ministre (9 000 euros par mois)) et recruté deux fidèles : son historique communicante, aussi futée qu’inépuisable, Catherine Lawless, et l’indispensable Claude Mollard.This 79 -year -old enarque, photographer, painter in his spare time, has always served in the shadows, without claiming his achievements, Buren columns at the fashion museum, among others.

« Dans ces pays où compte tant la longévité des hommes, Jack Lang est apprécié»», note l’ambassadeur Bertrand Besancenot.

« Jack, il lui faut ses grognards»», s’amuse-t-il en se souvenant des fines lames de la rue de Valois, dont l’un, Jean-Paul Claverie, parti créer l’empire culturel du fondateur de LVMH, Bernard Arnault.At the time, the budgets were colossal, at the IMA, they are weak: 12 million euros from the Quai d'Orsay, theoretically as much of the countries of the Arab League, which are reluctant to pay.The trio has dismantled to find patrons, propose targeted projects - an exhibition on Hadj in Saudi Arabia, on Moroccan art in the Cherifian kingdom, on football in Qatar - others, formidable, Osiris, the canalde Suez, the Christians of the East, and even soon the Jews of the East, despite the internal reluctance ... Lang has imposed himself, eternal apostle of dialogue, with his Judeity of which he never speaks and his deep attachment to cultureand to the Arabic language, which he ardently defends.Revolution also on the forecourt, with the landing of the Orient-Express, then from a flying saucer recovered from a Chanel parade, from a butter from Oman ...

« Ouvrir, ouvrir»», répète-t-il aux artistes, au-delà de ses amis célèbres comme Jamel Debbouze et Tahar Rahim, au public qu’il accueille parfois lui-même, programmes en main.The president also put his grain of salt in the kitchen, in an obsessive gourmet, fan of offal and fish which he sets up and serves every Sunday on impeccable tables, sometimes asking his guests to dress in mauve or blue, for the sake of harmony.Noura, the Lebanese caterer in place, displeased him despite the efforts of the boss who recruited cook from Mamounia, the favorite palace of Lang in Marrakech, with the Royal Mansour where the King of Morocco provides him with a sequel.It was not enough, a broken contract, Noura revealed then having offered for 41,000 euros of meals, before having the IMA condemned.A starred chef, Guy Martin, will take over before throwing in the towel.Sometimes Lang gets lost in his madness of quantities.His mother dreamed of him diplomat, he saw himself as such, constantly traveling from the Maghreb in the Middle East."In these countries where the longevity of men counts, Jack Lang is appreciated, notes the ambassador Bertrand Besancenot.He seizes the eastern soul, the elevator referrals, the importance of the word given.»»

He alone dares to defend, on TV, his patrons of Qatar, accused after the 2015 attacks to finance terrorism, and not be moved by the barbaric assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.The voice that once vibrated for Salman Rushdie and the dissidents of Tiananmen learned to be silent.Realpolitik, the interests with Riyadh are too strong;The president of the IMA prefers to discreetly decorate the Saudi princes, ask that we dismantle the chichas bar and that we build an ultra-secure tent to welcome, in 2018, MBS, who finally decided.He will come back, Lang will never forget his meeting with the young heir: "It was a few years ago, during a visit to King Salmane.I was seized by this guy with incredible, powerful, sensual physique;He scribbled messages to his father, I felt that he would become important.»»

No doubt he dreams that everything starts again, that Macron is his Mitterrand

Macron's potential also seized him, as soon as he appoints Bercy. Il l’a convié à des rencontres économiques et lui a vendu son éternel projet de « France arc-en-ciel»», pour promouvoir les entrepreneurs de la diversité. L’entente fut bonne, même libéralisme économique, sociétal, avec une vision d’une « laïcité apaisée»».But when the ambitious started, Lang denounced his treachery."In truth," recalls a collaborator, "he was crazy about jealousy.»» Jack en rit : « Effectivement, c’était pas chaud, chaud…»» Puis il a naturellement félicité le président.Small words, kindness, arabesques.Macron embarked Lang for a trip to Egypt and invited him to a number of official dinners.Monique came out her evening dresses, even if everything seems derisory since the disappearance of Valérie, their daughter darling, committed actress, swept away in 2013 by a brain tumor.

« J’ai changé»», souffle-t-elle pudiquement.Jack, he always pretends.He clings, smooth his wrinkles, makes the gym every morning with a coach.When Notre-Dame burned, he posted a selfie in front of the arrow in flames, then advised Macron to announce a rapid reconstruction, with a commando committee."I believe," he slips, he listened to me.»» Il ne cesse de louer « son intelligence prodigieuse, sa véritable culture»».No doubt he dreams that everything starts again, that Macron is his Mitterrand. Au premier confinement, Lang a fait porter à l’Élysée une note pour un « new deal culturel»». Le président l’a reçu et l’a entendu dérouler son idée de « grande radiographie de la France scientifique et culturelle»».

Lang knows that he was not good, he refines his copy and continues, in the meantime, his projects: create a great museum of contemporary Arab art, and an IMA in New York, one in Singapore ... this afternoon, her granddaughter Anna passes a head in her office.She looks like him, complicity, kisses, quickly, Sunday for a bar at the plancha. Il ferme la porte, s’arrête sur une photo de lui en compagnie de danseurs de hip-hop : « Ça, c’est la vie, l’action, la beauté…»» Silence, un éclair triste dans les yeux ardents : « Si je baisse le rideau, je disparais.»»