The law that opened up marriage to same-sex couples had deeply divided the National Assembly in 2013. If the vast majority of elected officials who voted against have now changed their minds, some remain deeply opposed.
331 votes for, 225 votes against. On April 23, 2013, the National Assembly definitively adopted the bill opening up marriage and adoption to same-sex couples, after heated debates in the Chamber and in the streets.
10 years later, marriage for all has become commonplace: more than 70,000 same-sex couples have married in the last decade, which represents just over 3% of unions. While several presidential candidates were still calling for the repeal of the law in 2017, no program mentioned this promise in 2022.
What about MPs who had voted against the reform at the time? Have they changed their minds? BFMTV.com questioned those who are still ministers, parliamentarians, MEPs or leaders of a local executive by asking them if their vote would be the same today.
• Those who have changed their minds
Among the deputies of the time who voted against the text, only right-wing elected officials or today macronists still have a mandate at the present time, even for some ministerial functions. 183 UMP deputies – the ancestor of LR – out of a total of 196 had said no to marriage for all.
Gerald Darmaninthen deputy mayor of Tourcoing, had made it known that he would refuse as city councilor to “personally” celebrate unions, after having had very lively exchanges with the Keeper of the Seals Christiane Taubira who defended the reform.
His appointment to the government in 2017 had made people cringe. “Obviously, homophobia is not a yellow line for Emmanuel Macron,” said feminist activist Caroline de Haas, for example.
The new tenant of Place Beauvau then launched a mine clearance operation, explaining in the columns of Point that “lack of experience” had “sometimes pushed him to talk nonsense”. “If it were to be done again, I would vote for the text of the marriage for all”, informed this Thursday Gérald Darmanin with The voice of the North.
“The minister never wanted to hurt anyone,” explains his cabinet. “He very much regrets his vote.”
When the bill was announced in October 2012, Christian Estrosi, then deputy mayor of Nice, had regretted the governmental tempo. “As long as we have not dealt with the problem of children’s rights before, I say that it is premature to approach the problem of the marriage of homosexuals. That is why I am not in favor of it”, explained the elected representative of Alpes-Maritimes on RTL.
Two years later, change of foot. Marriage for all “has been adopted, it has now entered the practices of the civil status of our country”, justified Christian Estrosi on Canal +. “He is the first mayor to have married homosexuals in town hall”, welcomes his entourage today (it is actually Hélène Mandroux, the mayor of Montpellier in 2013 Editor’s note).
Damien Abad forward, him, his “duty of loyalty” to BFMTV.com. “I had voted against out of respect for my political family but in reality, I was rather in favor of marriage for all”, assures the deputy – now related to Renaissance – who had to leave the government after accusations of rape and attempted murder. rape he denies.
Same explanations for Laurent Marcangeli, today number 1 of the Horizons group at the National Assembly. “I was full of doubt at the time and I respected the discipline of my political group,” says this close friend of Édouard Philippe. “Frankly, if I had to do it again, there are very big things I would do differently.”
Eric Ciottinow at the head of the Republicans, had at the time seemed to hesitate about his position. Asked by the Association of Parliamentary Journaliststhe one who was then close to François Fillon, very opposed to marriage for all, had declared “personally, I will vote for this text”, before rectifying a few minutes later, claiming to have said the opposite.
“On marriage for all, I might not have the same attitude today,” said the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes in the summer of 2017 on European 1. The parliamentarian did not respond to our interview requests.
Valerie Pécresse also changed his mind. In the fall of 2012, then deputy for Yvelines, the one who is now president (LR) of the Île-de-France Region comes out in favor of the repeal of marriage in all cases of adoption by the deputies of the reform. “We can imagine setting up a civil union status and transferring the rights to a civil union status, that can be done,” she considers.
Two years later, change of tone: “On homosexual marriage, I changed my mind because quite simply I thought about it”, advances Valérie Pécresse, while integrating a few months later several figures of the Manif pour tous in his campaign team for the regional elections.
During the last presidential election, Valérie Pécresse said on France 2 that she “regretted the invectives that may have been pronounced during these demonstrations”. “I was defending the civil union at the time”, then defended the candidate LR. Asked, his team did not respond to our requests.
Eric Woerthat the time elected LR, had expressed his “frontal opposition” to marriage for all, seeing it as “a regression, a rogue way of seeing progress” during a public meeting reported by The Parisian.
“Society has perfectly integrated marriage for all, it is no longer a subject”, advances to BFMTV.com the deputy, now a macronist.
Herve Morin, at the time UDI deputy, had estimated in 2011 that “marriage has its roots in religion”, worrying that the union for all pushes “a part of French society to feel hurt and touched”. Twelve years later, the president of the Normandy region tells us “to be for today” and “to have evolved on the question”.
Jean-Francois Cope, at the time president of the UMP, had been to all the Parisian demonstrations of the Manif pour tous. He now describes his opposition to same-sex marriage as “the only great regret of his political life”. “It’s totally back in the morals and that’s good,” judged the mayor of Meaux with the Sunday newspaper.
MP Modem Philippe Vigier also explains to us that there is “no more subject”.
“No one will ever go back, we’ve all moved on,” explains this close friend of Jean-Louis Borloo.
• Those who are still against
Thierry Mariani, then deputy LR who had been at the head of almost all the processions of the Manif pour tous, between Christine Boutin and Laurent Wauquiez, did not change his mind, without however wishing its repeal. “I’m still not enthusiastic, but it’s a demand from society. Democracy sometimes means accepting what doesn’t make us happy,” the MEP, now labeled RN, told BFMTV.com.
Gilbert Collard, close to Marine Le Pen in 2013, has not changed his mind either. “I remain philosophically and legally opposed to marriage for homosexual couples”, replies the MEP, a time honorary president of Reconquest during the presidential campaign.
Virulent opponent of marriage for all during the debates at the Palais-Bourbon, Laurent Wauquiez has repeatedly reaffirmed its desire to remove it.
“I opposed the Taubira law and I am still for the abolition of this law. I have not changed my course on this issue,” he said in 2016.
In 2017, in the columns of Current values, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region reiterates his remarks again, referring to a law to which “it is obvious that we must return”. Contacted, the regional elected official did not answer our questions.
Charles of Courson who gained notoriety with his opposition to pension reform did not change his mind. “During the examination of the Taubira law, I was in favor of a civil union contract. And as Dalida said: ‘I have not changed'”, explained the centrist deputy who sits with the Liot group. nearby Sunday newspaper in March.
• Those who say their vote was not against marriage
Some figures of the Manif pour tous who voted against marriage for all in the National Assembly hold a very different speech today. Valerie Boyer, then deputy UMP, was thus of all the demonstrations against the marriage for all. In 2016, she was one of the elected officials still present to pound the pavement again at the invitation of the movement, which was losing momentum.
“I have never been opposed to the union of two people of the same sex”, thus informs BFMTV.com the one who has since become a senator.
“I remain opposed to PMA (medically assisted procreation) for fertile people”, further advances this former close friend of François Fillon who judges that “marriage for all has logically led as we feared at the time” risks on the purchase of children”, pointing the finger at surrogacy – if the PMA was opened to all women in 2021, the GPA remains prohibited in France.
Same story on the side of Philippe Gosselin, one of the most active deputies against the reform in the hemicycle. “I was not opposed to the union of people of the same sex”, argued the deputy, while acknowledging having been “against marriage itself, in particular in terms of filiation”.
“On this point, I have not changed”, advances the elected representative of the Channel, regretting “the PMA and the GPA”.
• Those who refuse to answer
Several elected LRs have not responded to our requests and have not spoken in recent years on marriage for all, like Nicolas Dupont-Aignan and of Michele Tabarotone of those very close to Jean-François Copé during the fight against marriage for all on the right.
The President of the LR deputies, Olivier Marleixthe mayor of the 15th arrondissement of Paris Philippe GoujonMPs Patrick Hetzel And Marc le Fur also did not respond.
MP LR Annie Genevard explained that he “does not wish to speak on a past subject”. “I said what I had to say in due time,” replied the general secretary of the party. The elected Doubs had mentioned in the hemicycle “the cries of distress of these children brought up without a father or without a mother”.
“I have always considered that it was not the question of marriage between two homosexuals but that of adoption (which) erases the link with the biological parents, which challenged me”, advanced the parliamentarian to France 3 the day of the first marriage between two men in Montpellier. Almost ten years ago now.