Pressured to resign from all sides after the revelations of his links with Jeffrey Epstein, Jack Lang announced, Saturday February 7, that he « propos[ait] » his resignation from the presidency of the Arab World Institute (IMA) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, in a letter addressed to the latter.
Jean-Noël Barrot declared, at MondeSaturday evening “take note” of this decision, and launched the procedure to appoint his successor at the head of the IMA. “A board of directors will be convened within seven days to appoint an interim president”he clarified. For its part, the Elysée “takes note of the resignation” from the former Minister of Culture to the presidency of the Institute.
The former minister of culture, who has headed the IMA since 2013, was summoned to the Quai d’Orsay on Sunday at the request of Emmanuel Macron and Sébastien Lecornu, after the revelation of his links with the businessman and sex criminal.
“The current climate, mixing personal attacks, suspicions and amalgamations, all of which are otherwise unfounded, is harmful. It revolts and disgusts me. It can only harm this magnificent institution”deplores Jack Lang in his letter addressed to Mr. Barrot. “In order to preserve the Arab World Institute” and of “to be able to calmly challenge all the accusations which [l]‘assault’the former socialist minister thus proposes to postpone his “resignation at a next extraordinary board of directors, which may also choose [son] successor in order to avoid any break in continuity”.
Calls for his resignation have multiplied in recent days since the links between Jack Lang and Jeffrey Epstein were brought to light with the publication of millions of documents on January 30 by the American justice system. If no charges are weighed at this stage against the former minister, the mention of his name 673 times in exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein and his links of interest with the American financier have pushed many members of the political class to demand his departure from the IMA.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, Jack Lang said that “the accusations brought against [son] against [étaient] unfounded »from the AFP. After declaring on Monday “fully assume [ses] liens » spent with the American financier, Mr. Lang assured, Wednesday, that he knew nothing of this man’s criminal past when he met him there “around fifteen years” through director Woody Allen. He then formally ruled out resigning, citing his “naivety” faced with revelations about his past links with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.
Caroline Lang resigned as head of a film producers’ union
Friday evening, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, an institution responsible for combating tax fraud, announced to AFP that it had opened a preliminary investigation concerning “the facts revealed by Mediapart relating to Caroline and Jack Lang » and their alleged financial ties to Epstein.
Based on these new “Epstein files”, the media reported financial ties and common economic interests between the Lang family and the financier, convicted in 2008 for using the services of underage prostitutes and who was charged again in August 2019 when he died in prison.
On Monday, Caroline Lang resigned as head of a film producers’ union following revelations about an offshore company she founded in 2016 with the American businessman. Mr. Lang, for his part, admitted to having personally solicited the financier to obtain the payment of $57,897 to an association for a film on “Lang-Mitterrand years”.
According to the exchanges unearthed, the two men notably negotiated in 2015 the sale between them of a riad in Marrakech. Their correspondence then continued for several years. « Cher Jeffrey, (…) your generosity is infinite” Mr. Lang reportedly wrote in 2017. “Can I abuse it again? »he asked again, before asking the billionaire to transport him by car to a party organized outside Paris.
