A Swedish parliamentary candidate revealed on Friday that he is the illegitimate son of former French president, François Mitterrand. Hravn Forsne’s mother, a veteran Swedish journalist, previously admitted to having an affair with Mitterrand.

In a shock revelation with a local Swedish daily, Forsne – a 25-year-old candidate for next month’s general election – said he was the lovechild of Mitterrand and Swedish journalist Christina Forsne, a former Paris correspondent for the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet.

“I want to be judged for who I am, not for who my father was. But, okay, François Mitterrand was my dad,” Forsne told Swedish newspaper, Kungsbacka-Posten.

The admission comes two decades after the revelation that Mitterand had fathered a daughter, Mazarine Pingeot, with his longtime mistress, Anne Pingeot.

Both Anne and Mazarine Pingeot attended the 1996 funeral of France’s longest serving president – along with Mitterrand’s wife, Danielle, and their two sons.

In an interview with AFP, Forsne said he was speaking out now because he believed it was important for voters to know his background.

"I will only speak about it to the local media, because it's important for them and for my fellow citizens, for the voters to know their candidate," he said.

Forsne is running for election with the conservative pro-free market Moderate Party in Sweden’s September 14 election.

‘Is politics all you talk about, Mademoiselle?’

The latest twist in the Forsne family saga comes two years after Christina Forsne -- known as Chris in Sweden -- admitted to a 15-year relationship with Mitterrand between 1980 and 1995. But she refused to say whether the former French president had fathered her son Hravn—born in 1988, when Mitterrand had just won a second seven-year presidential term.

Mitterrand was 72 in 1988.

In a 2012 interview with Aftonbladet – the tabloid she once worked for - Forsne talked about her ‘intense love affair’ with Mitterrand, whom she met at an international Socialist conference in Bommersvik, Sweden, in 1979, when he was the leader of France’s Socialist Party.

According to her, Mitterrand interrupted her interview to ask, “Is politics all you talk about, Mademoiselle? Don’t you love life?”

She 31, he was 62 and in his 35th year of marriage to Danielle Mitterrand.

The Forsne-Mitterrand relationship began when she moved to Paris and Mitterrand was not yet president. She said that the morning of the election, on May 10, 1981, he called her. “He was in his bed and I was in mine, in different places. We spoke for 20 minutes and he joked, ‘Tonight is the night I retire.’”

Retirement of course was not on the cards – that would come 14 years later. But Mitterrand’s presidential obligations put a pressure on their escapades.

According to Forsne, she would sometimes sneak into the Elysée presidential palace through a secret door, or the two would slip out unseen by the guards and enjoy a night on the town.

“We dreamed of being able to live like everyone else,” said Forsne.

The journalist also claims that Mitterrand’s wife Danielle was aware of the affair.
 

Date created : 2014-08-09