France: Francois Hollande accused of introducing equal marriage ‘to satisfy lobby that financed him’
French President Francois Hollande, has been accused by one of the leaders of the anti-equal marriage campaign, of only introducing equal marriage “to satisfy the lobby that financed him”.
In an interview with RT.com, Bruno Vercken from the Manif Pour Tous (Demo for all), movement, accused the French President of pandering to a small group of funders of his presidential campaign.
Vercken said Holland “did this promise to satisfy a small lobby, particularly active lobby, who financed his presidential campaign. He didn’t anticipate that same-sex marriage was meaning in France adoption and plenary adoption – which immediately triggers the risk of losing the biological link between the kid and his parents. And in France this is very unique. And people are protesting against that to defend the right of children.”
He went on to criticise police in Paris of “going too far”, in dealing with anti-equal marriage protests, saying that there was no violence during several protests over recent months.
On Sunday, however, at the end of a day of tense, but relatively peaceful anti-equal marriage protests, which saw tens of thousands take to the streets of Paris, riot police clashed with hundreds of violent demonstrators.
“Several hundred people have been arrested by the police just because they were wearing suits with this logo there [shows the logo of Manif Pour Tous]. No longer than last Saturday, people were arrested in Paris because there were two of them walking together. And, at the same time, many people and no later than two weeks ago when Paris Saint-Germain celebrated this title in the soccer league in France, many people ruined some shops and they were not arrested.”
Frigide Barjot – real name Virginie Tellene – a born-again Catholic and reactionary comedian, brought together various Christian, conservative, and far-right groups together to rally against marriage equality earlier this year under the name Manif pour Tous.
Barjot has asserted that the Government should replace the equal marriage bill, which allows adoption for same-sex couples, with civil unions legislation, omitting the right to adopt.
Marriage equality opponents had hoped that challenging the bill before the Constitutional Council would scupper the bill after months of debate and protest.
However the Council declared: “The law allowing same-sex marriage conforms with the constitution.”
