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La Familia Grande a book written by Camille Kouchner, daughter of Bernard Kouchner, and whose revelations created a scandal at Sciences Po and on the French society.

Source of Scandal

The book relates how an intellectual environment around Olivier Duhamel and Sciences Po enabled an atmosphere of controversial relations between adults and children regarding sex and covered up rapes committed on the step-son of Olivier Duhamel.

Effects of Scandal

On Sciences Po

Olivier Duhamel, president of the National Foundation of Sciences Po until 2021 and a person having a considerable influence in Sciences Po and its network since 30 years, resigned in January 2021 after his step-daughter, Camille Kouchner, published a book in which she writes that Duhamel was sexually abusing his step-son for two years during his childhood. The alleged victim confirmed at Le Monde that revelations of Camille Kouchner are true. Their mother, Évelyne Pisier, professor at Sciences Po, privately defended her husband, saying that it was only fellations, and that he regretted it; she also accused Camille of not having told her earlier. Bernard Kouchner learned about it in the 2010s and wanted to bash Duhamel, but Camille Kouchner prevented him to do so. Marie-France Pisier, who had a dispute with her sister to make a scandal of it, was found dead in her swimming pool in 2011, possibly by suicide, but it is unclear if it is linked with it. An investigation concerning Duhamel has been opened by Paris prosecutors in January 2021 about "rape and sexual aggression against a minor".

These scandal was compared to a "bomb" launched on Sciences Po by Le Figaro, to an "unpinned grenade throwned on Sciences Po" by Le Temps and Courrier International. and to a "shockwave" on Sciences Po by The Times and La Croix. The academic staff knew, sometimes as soon as 2008, and its direction had been alerted, in particular by Aurélie Filippetti, former Ministry of Culture, of the situation but a "law of silence" had been put in place regarding this. However, this was "brushed aside as part of the intellectual environment of which Duhamel was part and which was based on "hedonism", "familial saga" and "complex parents-children relations" in the 1970s. Duhamel was indeed organizing many events with the French intelligentsia involving a lot of sex and alcohol and mixing adults and children. According to a witness who talked to Le Nouvel Obs but whose identity has not been revealed, children were told about loss of virginity at 12 and were asked to mime in front of parents sexual acts, 12-year old girls were dressed with provocative clothes and make-up and sent to dance with 40-year-old men, older children are asked to tell the audience about their first sexual experience and young boys are "offered" to older women. Sciences Po was the heart of Duhamel intellectual environment and network and therefore was "shaken" as a consequence of the Duhamel revelations.

Through the Foundations of Sciences Po, Duhamel had a large "network of influence" in politics, newspapers, TV channels, finance, etc. and therefore the scandal attained many people attached to the institution. Their role in protecting this intellectual environment has been asked. The French MP Aurore Bergé, alumnus of Sciences Po, asked why so many knew and nobody said anything. A former secretary of state and current prefect of the Paris region resigned from the FNSP. Duhamel’s power has extented to the French presidency and the French office of the Prime Minister. He had close relations with Emmanuel Macron (he helped him get elected and was guest at the president's private party after his election) and also assisted Édouard Philippe in becoming Prime Minister and afterwards mayor. They are both trying to distance themselves from the "Dumahel case". Students and public figures asked for the resignation of Frédéric Mion, director of Sciences Po, before and after he refused to do so. Mion, who was chosen by Duhamel as director of Sciences Po with a salary of 200,000 euros in controversial circumstances, admitted he knew, having brushed aside the allegations; but said he was made aware of a "rumour" in 2019 and said that he should have taken the issue more seriously. He told Le Monde: "I let myself be fooled". In the end, he resigned "to protect the reputation of the institution". It later appeared that he lied to the inspectors to protect at least 6 other people inside Sciences Po.

According to La Croix, the scandal has also put into light the power of the Foundation of Sciences Po (FNSP), less well known than Sciences Po itself but "at the heart of strategical decisions since 1945", and that the FNSP and Sciences Po are "untouchable with the power of their network".

On the French Society: #MeeToIncest and #MeTooGay

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2. https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210217-after-a-sluggish-start-metoo-movements-pick-up-steam-france
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23. Affaire Olivier Duhamel : plusieurs proches du politologue ont démissionné de leur fonction
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29. Affaire Duhamel : des étudiants demandent de nouveau la démission du directeur de Sciences-po
30. Guillaume, Mion, Duhamel : Sciences-Po, le pouvoir des trois
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35. Affaire Duhamel, l’onde de choc à la Fondation des sciences politiques