A fresh wave of political fallout from newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents has swept across Europe.
France’s foreign minister said on Friday that he had summoned former minister Jack Lang to a weekend meeting, as calls mounted for Lang to resign as head of a leading French cultural institute over his ties to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Lang, 86, is the most high-profile French figure caught up in the latest US release of documents linked to the financier who killed himself in 2019 while in prison facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
French media reports said Lang, who heads the Arab World Institute (IMA) in Paris, repeatedly appealed to Epstein for funds or favours, while his daughter’s name appears in the company files of an offshore company co-owned with the disgraced US tycoon.
His daughter Caroline Lang, a film producer, resigned on Monday as head of the Independent Production Union.
Lang, who spent nearly 20 years as culture minister and education minister in different governments, has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes despite his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
On Wednesday, he refused to step down as president of the cultural hub focused on the Arabic-speaking world.
Pressure has increased however and the foreign ministry — which provides half of the institute’s budget — has ordered him to a meeting.
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