Last week, Paris Foot Gay said its members were victims of homophobia when Creteil Bebel, a team of Muslim players, refused to play them this month.

The French amateur league said it excluded Creteil for “refusing the match on discriminatory grounds.”

“It’s a permanent exclusion, they will never be reinstated,” league president Jacques Stouvenel said.

The survey was conducted this week, when Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand had to defend his honor over a book he wrote describing paying young men for sex.

Mitterrand has kept his job so far, but the controversy has posed yet another challenge for Sarkozy, who is struggling with France’s worst economic slump since World War II.

Sarkozy hasn’t spoken publicly about Mitterrand’s book, though Mitterrand said the two met privately Thursday and Sarkozy “confirmed his confidence” in the culture minister.

The poll by the CSA agency shows 41 percent of respondents trust the president to confront the country’s problems, down 6 percent from a month earlier. The poll of 1,003 people was conducted by telephone Tuesday and Wednesday. No margin of error was given.

The polling agency noted a particular drop in support among Sarkozy’s core voters, who oppose his policies of reaching out to those outside his right-wing circle – such as Mitterrand, nephew of the late former French president, Socialist Francois Mitterrand.

Politicians and voters remained divided over the culture minister, after he went on national television Thursday night to tamp down calls for his resignation and explain his complicated personal past.

Mitterrand is an easy target for traditionalists: Openly gay, he wrote a book in 2005 called “La mauvaise vie,” or “The Bad Life,” in which he details encounters with male prostitutes in Thailand.

He uses the ambiguous term “boys,” common language in French to refer to gay men. Mitterrand recently jumped to the defense of filmmaker Roman Polanski, in a Swiss jail on U.S. charges related to sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl.

Calls from the extreme right and the left mounted this week for Mitterrand’s resignation.

Speaking on TF1 television Thursday, he insisted he had not hired minors and that the book was not a straight autobiography. He said he had no intention of quitting his job.

“I condemn sexual tourism, which is a disgrace. I condemn pedophilia, which I have never in any way participated in,” Mitterrand said. “All those who accuse me of this kind of thing should be ashamed.”

Some in the governing UMP party welcomed his explanation.

“I found him very moving,” Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Friday on BFM television. “In each person’s life, there are doubtlessly difficult periods, and shadows.”

Mitterrand’s staunchest critics were unconvinced. Marine Le Pen, vice president of the far-right National Front party, called him a “liar” and reiterated calls for him to be fired. She ignited the controversy this week by reading excerpts from the book on television.

While politicians’ personal lives in France are traditionally considered private business, Mitterrand’s experiences have worried some.

“He should resign. What he did is serious, not OK and not legal. He shouldn’t be in the government anymore,” said Alexandre Binon, a 24-year-old student from Rouen visiting Paris.

The book raised no more than literary eyebrows when it was published, and it drew little attention when Mitterrand was named to the government in June. Until he became France’s guardian of culture, Mitterrand was known primarily as a television personality who made profiles of the famous.

Three or four thieves swiped rings, necklaces and luxury watches from display cases at the Harry Winston store near the Champs-Elysees, a police official said. They brandished handguns and threatened about 15 employees, hitting some on the head with guns, the official said.

At least two of the bandits were men wearing wigs and dressed as women, at times spoke a foreign language, and knew employees’ names, the official said. After the theft, the robbers fled.

The official, who was not authorized to be publicly named according to agency policy, said it was among France’s biggest-ever jewel thefts.

New York-based Harry Winston said in a statement: “We are cooperating with the authorities in their investigation. Our first concern is the well-being of our employees.”

A spokeswoman for the company would not provide further details on the theft. It was unclear whether anyone was injured.

The boutique, on the expensive Avenue Montaigne, was closed to the public Friday. Three of the five display windows stood empty of their usual wares.

The store was targeted in a similar theft in October 2007, when three people forced employees to open safes and hand over 10 million euros worth of jewels.

A security monitoring group for the French jewelry industry has reported a 20 percent rise in armed robberies this year over last, with 132 incidents in the first 11 months of 2008.

In London, police have reported a recent rise in holdups of security vans. Police say it could be linked to the credit crunch and predict the trend to continue as Christmas approaches.

The party has been in disarray since Royal, a Socialist member of Parliament, was beaten by Sarkozy for the presidency in May 2007. The party has so far failed to mount an effective opposition.

Delanoe, who is openly gay, and Royal, who is gay-positive, are among eight candidates seeking the Socialist Party nod to run against Sakozy in 2012.

This week the party has been meeting to adopt a platform. Each of the candidates has proposed their own manifesto. The winning platform will give its candidate a clear advantage for the leadership.

In an initial vote, Royal came out on top, about 29 percent ahead of Delanoe, who was second. A final vote is expected on the weekend and the party will meet in November to chose a candidate for the presidency..

Delanoe’s platform calls for a “decidedly reformist left, that is pro-European, pro-environment and efficient.” Royal seeks to move the party closer to the middle.

In the last presidential election, conservative Sarkozy claimed the middle ground – a move credited with helping him win.

In March, Delanoe romped to an easy re-election as Paris mayor.

If he were to win the presidency, it would make Delanoe the first openly gay man in modern times to lead a major power.

In 1998, while he was a relatively obscure city councilor, Delanoe came out in a television interview, breaking an unwritten French law that a politician’s private life should remain private.

He later said that friends urged him not to go public, but that he overruled them because of the good he felt it would do to advance gay rights. “Would not my intervention help, even if only in a small way, to lighten the burden of secrecy borne by so many people?” he wrote in his 2004 biography.

In 2001, Delanoe was elected the capital’s first ever Socialist mayor and the first gay person to head a city government in a major city.

A year later, Delanoe was stabbed by a deranged homophobe as he presided over an all-night cultural party at city hall.

He was rushed to the hospital, suffering a single stab wound to his abdomen. Doctors at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital operated on Delanoe for more than three hours. He would spend nearly a month in the hospital.

Police arrested a man at the scene. During interrogations, he told investigators he hated gays and politicians.

Since becoming mayor, Delanoe has been hugely popular, particularly with the poor and middle classes.

But his popularity also is high outside Paris -  and a growing number in the Socialist Party see him as their strongest hope for defeating Sarkozy.

Last year when she ran against Sarkozy, Royal said that if her party formed the next government she would introduce a gay marriage bill.

“Opening up marriage to same-sex couples is needed in the name of equality, visibility and respect,” Royal told gay publication Tetu.

The party has been in disarray since Segolene Royal was beaten by Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidency in May 2007 and the party has failed to mount an effective opposition.

Party members are due to choose a new leader in November and Royal already has said she would seek to renew her leadership.

Delanoe’s declaration in an interview with Le Monde newspaper puts to rest months of speculation.

“Yes, I will put all my energy at the service of my beliefs,” the mayor told Le Monde newspaper when asked if he would run.

In March Delanoe romped to an easy re-election as Paris mayor, fueling speculation his Socialist Party would tap him to run against President Sarkozy in 2012.

If he were to win the presidency it would make Delanoe the first openly gay man in modern times to lead a major power.

In 1998, while he was a relatively obscure city councilor, Delanoe came out in a television interview, breaking an unwritten French law that a politician’s private life should remain private.

He later said that friends urged him not to go public, but that he overruled them because of the good he felt it would do to advance gay rights. “Would not my intervention help even if only in a small way to lighten the burden of secrecy borne by so many people,” he wrote in his 2004 biography.

In 2001 Delanoe was elected the capital’s first ever Socialist mayor and the first gay person to head a city government in a major city.

A year later Delanoe was stabbed by a deranged homophobe as he presided over an all-night cultural party at city hall.

He was rushed to hospital suffering a single stab wound to his abdomen.  Doctors at Pitie-Salpetriere hospital operated on Delanoe for more than three hours.  He spent nearly a month in hospital.

Police arrested a man at the scene.  During interrogations he told investigators he hated gays and politicians.

Since becoming mayor Delanoe has been hugely popular, particularly with the poor and middle classes.

But his popularity also is high outside Paris and a growing number in the Socialist Party see him as their strongest hope for defeating Sarkozy in the next election – scheduled for 2012.