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.

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.

France's Ruling Socialist Party Adds Gay Equality Avatars To Social Media Accounts

As the marriage equality debate rages on in the French Senate today, the ruling Socialist Party (the bill's main backer), has changed their social media accounts to display the LGBT equality avatar made globally famous last month during the US Supreme Court hearings on Prop 8 and DOMA.  (Tipped by JMG reader Andres)

FRANCE: Socialist Party Offers Compromise On Gay Marriage Bill

Just days ahead of a joint Catholic-Muslim protest that is forecast to draw as many as 200,000 participants, France's Socialist Party today compromised on its same-sex marriage bill by dropping the provision for the government to provide procreation services to gay couples.

The compromise, according the Radio France, is designed to soften opposition to the marriage equality bill due for debate at the National Assembly at the end of this month. The ruling Socialist party announced today (9 January) that it would not to table an amendment that would have enabled lesbian couples to have children by medically assisted means after being promised that it will be included in a future family law. Hollande, however, said he will not back down from his election pledge to legalize same-sex marriage, but expressed his eagerness to avoid an open conflict with France’s religious leaders. The opposition center-right UMP party expressed its opposition to the bill and support of the religious leaders’ stance. An opinion poll published yesterday that two thirds of the French public (60 percent) support gay marriage, although most considered it ‘secondary’ issue, with 46 per cent in favor of medically assisted procreation.

According to the above-linked story, French LGBT groups have expressed disappointment in the compromise.

France's First Lady: I Can't Wait To Take Part In My First Same-Sex Wedding

France's First Lady says she is looking forward to being part of the wedding party of gay friends once marriage is legalized.

Valerie Trierweiler, the girlfriend of French President Francois Hollande, has given plans to legalise gay marriage with her personal seal of approval by announcing she will be a witness at one of the first ceremonies. While her partner's commitment to proposed legislation allowing same-sex marriages has been questioned in recent weeks, Trierweiler revealed she had accepted an invitation to participate in the wedding of gay friends. "I'm delighted that I'm going to be a witness at one of the very first marriages for all," Trierweiler said. A law providing for same sex couples to wed and adopt children is expected to be on the statute book by the middle of next year. Its passage through parliament is likely to be stormy however given strong opposition from sections of the opposition right, Catholic bishops and other religious leaders.

France's national legislature begins debate on the draft version of the bill in three months.

France Sets The Date: October 31st

The French government has named October 31st as the day when the first draft of its marriage equality law will be approved.

Despite widespread political and religious opposition, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault insisted there would be no backtracking on a manifesto promise by President Francois Hollande in an interview with AFP. More than 1,200 French mayors and deputy mayors have signed a petition opposing the government’s plans, with many of them warning they will not preside over same-sex ceremonies. However, this represents less than one percent of the total number of mayors and deputy mayors in France.

The Socialist Party holds a strong majority and President Francois Hollande has vowed that same-sex marriages will commence nationwide by summer.

French President Calls On UN To Support Decriminalizing Homosexuality

"France will continue to engage in all these struggles: for the abolition of the death penalty, for women's rights to equality and dignity, for the universal decriminalization of homosexuality, which should not be recognised as a crime but, on the contrary, recognized as a [sexual] orientation. All members countries have the obligation to guarantee the security of their citizens, and if one nation adheres to this obligation, it is then imperative that we, the United Nations, facilitate the necessary means to make that guarantee. These are the issues that France will lead and defend in the United Nations. I say this with seriousness. When there is paralysis... and inaction, then injustice and intolerance can find their place." - French President Francois Hollande, speaking yesterday at the United Nations General Assembly.  (Text via Towleroad)

France Sets Marriage Timetable

As I mentioned two weeks ago, upon the election of President Francois Hollande and the following landslide of Socialists into the national legislature, same-sex marriage was all but guaranteed for France. Today the French government officially set the timetable.

"Within a year, people of the same sex will be able to marry and adopt children together," Dominique Bertinotti, junior minister for families, told the daily Le Parisien. "They will have the same rights and duties as any married couple." A law granting full marriage status to gay couples would bring France, which currently provides only for same-sex civil unions, into line with fellow EU members Denmark, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. It would also mark a profound change in French society, where more than two-thirds of people still describe themselves as Roman Catholic, according to a 2010 survey by pollster Ifop. However, fewer and fewer of them adhere to strict Roman Catholic teachings on sexual issues or back the Vatican’s condemnation of homosexuality. Church attendance has collapsed.

(Via Zack Ford)

Gay Marriage Is Coming To France

On Sunday France's Socialist Party won a commanding number of seats in the national legislature, virtually assuring that President Francois Hollande's promise of marriage equality will be fulfilled.

Hollande's Socialist Party won 314 of Parliament's 577 seats, giving the nascent president a free hand with which to enact his liberal reforms. The president can also rely on the support of 27 left-leaning candidates who also won legislative posts. Conservatives lost 111 seats in Sunday's elections. A Hollande administration backed by Socialist majorities means good news for supporters of France becoming the 12th nation to legalize gay nuptials. As a candidate, Hollande pledged to pursue such legislation. A communique issued last month by the office of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) reiterated Hollande's campaign promises to the gay community.

France would become the 12th nation with full marriage equality after Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Holland, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, and Denmark, who approved their law earlier this month. No timetable is provided in the above-linked article. (Tipped by JMG reader Straight Grandmother)

Pro-Gay Socialist Wins In France

FRANCE: Polls Favor Gay-Friendly Socialist In Today's Presidential Election

Fascist National Front leader and third place finisher Marine Le Pen refused to endorse Sarkozy, leading many to believe that Socialist Francois Hollande, who supports same-sex marriage, will win by five or six points. We'll know how today's runoff election turned out very shortly. Meanwhile here's some raw video of the two finalists making their votes this morning.

FRANCE: Pro-Gay Socialist Edges Sarkozy In First Round Of Presidential Election

Pro-gay Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande (left) has edged incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of France's presidential election. Hollande has expressed support for same-sex marriage in France, Sarkozy is strongly opposed.

The winner of yesterday’s first round was the Socialist candidate François Hollande, with 28-29 per cent, who will contest the run-off against President Nicolas Sarkozy, who, with 25-27 per cent, became the first incumbent president to lose at the first hurdle. A victory in the May 6 run-off would make Mr Hollande, 57, France’s first Socialist leader to be elected since François Mitterrand in 1988. Last night he pledged to unite the French after Mr Sarkozy’s divisive first term and declared: “I’m best placed to become next president.” He blamed Mr Sarkozy for the rise of the far-Right, saying his “discourse over the last few months has played into the hands of the far-Right”. Confounding predictions of high abstention records, around 80 per cent of France’s 44.5 million-strong electorate turned out to vote for the 10 candidates.

Playing the spoiler was fascist National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, who shocked observers by taking almost 20% of the vote, mostly from previous supporters of Sarkozy. Followed the announcement of the results, Sarkozy issued a plea to Le Pen's backers by mentioning her hot-button issue, Muslim immigration to France:

“This anxiety, this suffering, I know them, I understand them,” he said. “They concern our borders, outsourcing, control of immigration, work, security, for them and their families. I know that in this fast moving world, the concern of our patriots to preserve their way of life is the key issue in this election.”

Election watchers say the final result may be in Le Pen's hands, should she decide to throw her support to either of the finalists.

Socialists March In Washington DC

The teabaggers are going crazy with glee because actual open socialists joined in at this weekend's "One Nation Working Together" labor rally in Washington, DC.

Portugal May Go For Marriage Equality

Portugal's prime minister Jose Socrates says that if his Socialist Party wins the election later this year, he intends to legislate for marriage equality. However Socrates will face fierce opposition from the Catholic Church.

The leaders of the Catholic Church in Portugal have been accused of interfering in the political process after the country's bishops said they would fight proposals to introduce gay marriage. After a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference in Fatima, a Church spokesman said: "At the time of voting, Christians will certainly draw their conclusions. Those who involve themselves in these ventures in which the society is exposed to profound wounds, are not trustworthy." He added that Portugese society is "threatened" by same-sex marriage. After accusations that the Church was targeting the Socialists, it said that the bishops merely wished to "educate" the electorate.

Portugal's general election takes place in September. It was Spain's Socialist Party who brought marriage equality to that country in 2005.