French Prime Minister, François Fillon, speaks out against equal marriage

French Prime Minister and Presidential hopeful, François Fillon

Interviewer: "For or against gay marriage?"

F. Fillon (almost interrupting): "Against."

It wasn't the opposition to equal marriage rights for gay couples that French Prime Minister and Presidential candidate from the Christian conservative UMP party, François Fillion, surprised the majority pro-gay rights French youth with when he spoke out strongly against it on Friday February 3rd, but more so the way in which he justified his response. 

In an interview on the national centre-right-wing TV station France 2, Fillon stated "I consider we can certainly still do more to respond to the legitimate requests of homosexual couples who wish to have their place in society and I think we still have to do more in this domain, but as part of my campaign I have an objective which is the security of children, an objective which doesn't appear to me as compatible with homosexual couples". How to spot a homophobe? Look out for the dancing around the words "gay" and "equality". What could he possibly mean by "the security of children" not being "compatible with homosexual couples"? For a start it has been shown, through social research study presented on the British news website The Week, that gay couples wishing to adopt form relationships that are more stable than those formed by heterosexual couples, thus giving children a more secure emotional home. So where does this theory come from and what was he trying to invoke in his speech? 

Well sadly, he never got to tell us, because the slightly panicky, stuttering Prime Minister decided to tell us what he would do to "make things better" for gay couples. "I am in favour of going much further than what has been done up until today with the PACS which could be much improved, notably with the possibility of a ceremony in a town hall. [...] It's a point which will be at the heart of the presidential race." Indeed, François Fillon supports the "separate but equal" view of "civil-unions can be the same as marriage". In fact, he even highlighted his bigotry explicitly by saying "there's marriage, and then there are the homosexual couples". 

Gay marriage is not a new debate in France and is supported mainly by French youth. 75% of under 35s support  full and equal same-sex marriage. Poster reads: 'The opening of marriage to same-sex couples: "And why not civil unions with animals?" - Brigitte Bareges'. A man protests at a gay pride event in Toulouse, 2011.

France has legalized a form of civil union for same-sex couples called the Pacte Civil de Solidarité or PACS (Civil Solidarity Pact) which brings rights and responsibilities, but less so than marriage. Preparations for the legalisation of a same-sex PACS back in December 2004 were considered by many LGBT groups as a tactic for avoiding the debate on same-sex marriage. Gay and lesbian organizations in France, who believe that the prohibition of same-sex marriage is contrary to the Constitution, asked the country's Constitutional Council to examine the constitutionality of gay marriage and to review the articles of the Civil Code. According to activists, the decision could open a door for the legalization of marriage between same-sex couples in France. Just over a year ago, on January 28th, 2011 the Constitutional Court of France decided that the illegality of same-sex marriages is not contrary to the Constitution, clearly stating that this is a question for Parliament to decide. On June 14th, the National Assembly of France voted 293-222 against legalizing same-sex marriage. Members of France's Socialist Party have stated that full marriage equality would be a focus-point of their programme should they win the legislative elections coming up in June 2012 - something that you will probably never see from the centre-right party, the UMP, which is currently in power.

You can of course watch this clip from the interview below. It is in French and is not subtitled, but most of it has been translated in this article. Nonetheless, it's quite interesting to watch his body language which he does quite well to hide, but doesn't get away with it so easily in some places.