FRANCE: Thousands Of Anti-Gay Right Wingers Protest President Hollande

Torrential rains forced France's famed anti-gay Hommen into a totally not homoerotic group huddle during yesterday's protest against President Francois Hollande. As is typical for France's neo-Nazi supported anti-gay movement, things got violent.

Several thousand people marched through Paris on Sunday in a "Day of Anger" against embattled President Francois Hollande which ended in clashes between police and protesters. Security forces used tear gas to disperse several hundred youths who lobbed police with bottles, fireworks, iron bars and dustbins. Police on Monday said at least 250 people had been arrested after the clashes, during which 12 officers were injured. Interior Minister Manuel Valls condemned the violence "by individuals, varied groups from the extreme and ultra-right, whose only goal is to create unrest". The march organised by a motley group of some 50 small and mainly right-wing organisations, however failed to attract bigger anti-Hollande movements. Organisers claimed a turnout of some 120,000 people, however police estimated there were 17,000 people at the protest, held under pouring rain. The demonstrators railed against a slew of policies under Hollande - the most unpopular French president of modern times - such as last year's law allowing gay marriage.

In the video below you'll see two men performing the quenelle, which is a 21st century French version of the Nazi salute.

(Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother)

New From Manif Pour Tous

Marriage has been legal there for months and months, but France's neo-Nazi supported Manif Pour Tour carries on. Today's clip announces major rallies in Paris and Lyon on February 2nd. Somebody want to translate all the graphics?

UPDATE: They have taken down the clip. JMG readers have provided recaps and translations in the comments.

Manif Pour Tous Goes To Italy

France's NOM-backed anti-gay marriage group Manif Pour Tous, which is now run by a coalition of far-right violent extremists, some of whom call for a Catholic theocracy in France, is taking their campaign to Italy.

Siamo lieti di comunicare che da oggi nasce La Manif pour Tous Italia con l’autorizzazione ed in stretto legame con La Manif pour Tous francese. La Manif pour Tous in Francia ha avuto l’inaspettato merito di risvegliare milioni di coscienze. Con un taglio trasversale portato avanti prima di tutto dalla gente comune, condiviso personalmente da personaggi politici di tutti gli schieramenti, da associazioni di persone omosessuali, e da credenti di tutte le religioni e non credenti, ha sostenuto con fermezza e rispetto che il matrimonio possa essere composto solo da un uomo ed una donna. Un movimento nato nella società civile e apertamente apolitico e aconfessionale. La Manif pour Tous Italia si sente in sintonia con queste istanze e con questo metodo.

(Tipped by JMG reader David)

Frigide Barjot: French Spring Has Taken Over Manif Pour Tous, I'm Out Of Here

Frigide Barjot says that extremists from the French Spring have seized control of Manif Pour Tous and she is leaving to start a new movement. Via The Local:

After the latest rally ended in violence as a hail of bottles and bricks rained down on France’s police force and journalists were attacked in the street, Frigide Barjot, the comic who has led the 'Manif pour Tous' (demo for all) campaign, walked away, along with her right hand man Xavier Bongibault.

Speaking to The Local this week, Bongibault said they would continue to fight against gay marriage but under a new banner “l’Avenir pour Tous” (A future for all), which plans to bring together like-minded people to share their ideas.

Bongibaut admitted he and Barjot had lost control of the Manif pour Tous as radicals from more extreme groups like Printemps Français (French Spring) took the helm. “With the radicalization of the 'Manif Pour Tous' movement it became intolerant, we lost control of it,” Bongibault said. “They just want to break everything, but that’s not how you bring about change,” he said.

Bongibault, who is gay himself, said there will be no more mass street protests and 'L’Avenir pour Tous' will direct its energy towards putting pressure on France’s elected politicians to overturn the gay marriage bill as well as fighting any move towards surrogacy or medically assisted procreation for gay couples.

Recent polls indicate that the vast majority of the French public is sick of the protests and wants them to stop. Earlier this week both the FRC and NOM praised the increasingly violent and ugly anti-gay protests.

FRC Cheers Manif Pour Tous

Forget about all those associations with the violent French Spring, the neo-Nazi National Front, and the Catholic theocrats of the Civitas Institute.  Never mind the riots, the gay bashings, the thousands of arrests or the injured policemen.  Because the Family Research Council wants you to know that Manif Pour Tous is doing God's work.

We can take inspiration from those young Frenchmen and women who are standing for the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God. They are demonstrating for the future of all—truly a Manif pour Tous. The Manif pour Tous is happy to use revolutionary imagery. Our own TEA Party raises up “Dont Tread on Me” flags.

The French raise up the tricolor and march wearing Liberty caps. They’re not talking violence, don’t worry. But they are speaking of removing weak-kneed politicians from office. They are planning to challenge those on the right who fail to stand for the deepest values of their own constituents. God bless them!

Throughout the French provinces—what is called La France Profonde—we see a movement arising. It is a gathering storm, not a spent force. The rulers in Paris may have to take note. When the news first came to King Louis XVI of the storming of the Bastille, he asked: “It is a revolt?” His attendant answered: “No, Sire, it is a revolution.”

By the way, the FRC's blog uses Disqus.

FRANCE: Marriage Protest Ends In Violence, Hundreds Arrested By Riot Police

Yesterday's anti-gay marriage rally in Paris ended with yet more violence.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday that police had made a total of 350 arrests, and that 36 people had been injured: 34 police officers, one AFP photojournalist and one protester. In a statement, Valls blamed the "extreme right" for the violence. Some of the far-right activists briefly unfurled a banner at the ruling Socialist party's headquarters urging President Francois Hollande to resign.

As the protesters dispersed, after a largely peaceful march, police said up to 500 people began attacking them by throwing metal barriers, smoke flares and beer bottles. The youths shouted slogans against the government such as "Socialist dictatorship" and also threw objects at journalists covering the event. "These incidents were provoked by several hundred individuals, most from the extreme right and the (nationalist) Bloc Identitaire, who violently attacked police," he added.

Anti-gay leaders said that the government is attempting to squelch dissent by "smearing" their movement as being dominated by the extreme right.

I think the French police under the leadership of the Ministry of the Interior regard these demonstrations as an ideological threat to their power – and indeed that what’s they are. This is the biggest mass demonstrations probably in the whole of French history, and certainly for the last 30 years or more. And they have been completely unexpected. The government never expected so many people to turn out into the street. And they realize that those people who were demonstrating yesterday, as I say, they are ideological enemies.

And there’s been a lot of propaganda, encouraged again by government, saying that the demonstrators are an extreme-wing gang. This is the government propaganda. This is precisely the way that the government has been seeking to delegitimize what is a massive demonstration and is overwhelmingly peaceful. The fact that a few young people ended up throwing a couple of bottles at the police – not that I approve it – doesn’t mean as the government would like to pretend that somehow dangerous, sinister forces work behind these demonstrations.

FRANCE: Catholic Theocrats Parade Donkeys At Paris Anti-Gay Marriage March

Joining today's anti-gay march in Paris was the Civitas Institute, a group that demands a Catholic theocracy for France.   According to Civitas, President Francois Hollande is a "puppet of the Freemasons." They were followed by members of the extreme-right Nationalist Youth (above), a division of the National Front party, whose leader Marine Le Pen praised the Notre Dame suicide of Dominique Venner.

UPDATE: Civitas claims that 10,000 of its followers attended today's march. Via Google Translate:

Catholics and French patriots wanted to show their commitment to marriage, the family, and the values ​​that are the soul of our country and that the greatness of our civilization. This marriage law is so clearly opposed to basic common sense and the common good of society, it becomes illegitimate and there is no way we will respect or obey it. This May 26 will mark the transformation of the French Spring into a revolution. Remain focused! The slogan remains the same: Destroy the enemies of marriage, family and France.

FRANCE: Hundreds Of Thousands March In Paris Against Same-Sex Marriage

Manif Pour Tous is claiming that one million turned out for today's anti-gay march and rally against same-sex marriage. Paris police are putting the number at 200,000. Watch live here.

UPDATE: Riot police are already on the scene and responding to protesters who have handcuffed themselves to barricades.

FRANCE: Government To Ban Extreme Right Anti-Gay Group French Spring

Following Dominque Venner's suicide at the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral, the French government announced yesterday that it is seeking to ban French Spring, the extreme right anti-gay group to which Denner reportedly belonged.

The nebulous movement, which loosely links a number of ultra-nationalist and Nazi-sympathising groups, is accused of making recent threats to public figures – including Frigide Barjot, the more moderate leader of anti-gay marriage protests.  Groups linked to Printemps Français [French Spring] are believed to be planning attacks on police, journalists and, possibly Ms Barjot, during the march due to be attended by up to 500,000 opponents of same-sex marriage. Interior Minister Manuel Valls said the splinter groups planned to go along “not to demonstrate but to attack symbols of a Republic, which these far-right groups hate.”  In a declaration published on the day of the suicide, Printemps Français said France was “now subject to forces which wish to reduce it to servitude. The battle is only just beginning. It will continue until victory is won.”

International Business Times has more:

French Spring released a statement threatening to target "the government and all its appendices, the collaborating political parties and lobbies where the ideological programmes are developed and the organs which spread it". "This is a call to violence," Valls told radio station France Info, and said there had been a number of death threats, which he does not "take lightly". "Justice will have to act because it is intolerable that in the Republic there can be these messages of hate," he continued. "There is no place for groups that challenge the Republic, democracy and which also attack individuals."

Manif Pour Tous has vehemently denied any relationship with French Spring. MPT leader Frigide Barjot has said that she might not attend tomorrow's planned massive anti-gay rally in Paris because the government has refused to protect her from French Spring radicals, who are believed to be behind many of the most violent anti-gay riots that have rocked France in recent weeks.  The all-male anti-gay topless group HOMMEN is reportedly made up of French Spring members and their photos feature prominently on the group's Facebook page.

VIDEO: From their official YouTube channel, below is French Spring's clip in support of tomorrow's anti-gay protest. You'll note that despite Frigide Barjot's claim of non-affiliation, French Spring uses Manif Pour Tous imagery in their video.

UPDATE: Just posted to French Spring's Facebook page.

Frigide Barjot: I'm Afraid To Attend This Sunday's Anti-Gay Marriage Protest

Manif Pour Tous leader Frigide Barjot says she might not attend this Sunday's planned anti-gay marriage protest because the government has not committed to protecting her from pro-gay counter-protesters and members of France's extreme-right French Spring.

Barjot: "I get death threats, calls for aggression, and this morning - a handkerchief full of blood. At the moment, and as we do not have strong guarantees on the part of the police and organizers, I put my participation in doubt."

RELATED: On Tuesday, Dominique Venner, who was reportedly a follower of French Spring, committed suicide at the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral just hours after writing a blog post that denounced the just-finalized marriage equality bill. Venner's suicide note has now been released in full to the press.  An excerpt:

While many men are slaves of their lives, my gesture embodies an ethic of will. I give myself over to death to awaken slumbering consciences. I rebel against fate. I protest against poisons of the soul and the desires of invasive individuals to destroy the anchors of our identity, including the family, the intimate basis of our multi-millennial civilization. While I defend the identity of all peoples in their homes, I also rebel against the crime of the replacement of our people.

Venner goes on to apologize to his family, but says that one day they will understand his sacrifice.

UPDATE: The Daily Beast has posted a lengthy examination of Venner's history with France's fascist movement. A brief excerpt:

A veteran of French ethno-nationalist neo-fascist groups, Venner was a longtime militant of the far right who had gradually eased into a new life as a respected historian, known for his expertise on weapons and hunting. But his suicide manifesto, as well as a blog post he published earlier that morning, took him directly back to the dark themes that drove his life: the “great replacement of the people of France” and the prospect of France “falling into the hands of Islamists.” He praised an upcoming protest of France’s new law legalizing gay marriage, which he called “detestable.”

Dominique Venner's Suicide Note

"I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself to break with the lethargy that is overwhelming us. I am killing myself to awaken slumbering consciences." - French anti-gay marriage activist Dominique Venner, from the suicide note found near his body at the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Venner's suicide remains headline news across France today and the ruling Socialist Party has issued a denouncement of his action.  Party head Harlem Desir: "The bill has been approved and opponents of marriage for everyone need to understand that it is now the law of the republic."

RELATED: The BBC has more on Venner: "Venner was once imprisoned for activities with the Secret Army Organization (OAS), which opposed Algerian independence in the early 1960s and tried to assassinate President Charles De Gaulle."

FRANCE: Manif Pour Tous Denies Knowing Man Who Killed Himself At Notre Dame

Yesterday a well-known anti-gay marriage activist shot himself in the head at the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral hours after writing a blog post denouncing France's legalization of same-sex marriage.  The French press, quite naturally, wants to know if the man was affiliated with Manif Pour Tous.

Their leader Frigide Barjot says he was not: "This was a personal, isolated act. This man was part of a movement called the French Spring, which has nothing to do with us and we have condemned a long time ago. I did not know this man who belonged to the extreme-right. I pray for his soul." Barjot went on to claim that she has received death threats from France's extreme-right.

The French Spring is an anti-gay campaign by France's far-right that calls for the overthrow of the ruling Socialist Party. (Perhaps obviously, the name is a take on the Arab Spring.)  Many of the most violent anti-gay riots that France has recently endured are believed to be the work of French Spring followers.

RELATED: Yesterday Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's neo-Nazi National Front party praised the dead man, hailing his "final, eminently political act."

NOTE: The above quote from Barjot was roughly translated via Google. Feel free to make any corrections in tone or content.