Nicolas Sarkozy needs a dictator's score in the November 29th election for the leadership of the conservative UMP – something like 80 per cent – if he's to retake the Élysée Palace in 2017.
Sarkozy’s ambition got the better of him at a rally at the weekend, sponsored by the “Common Sense” movement, which opposes the 2013 Taubira law that legalised same-sex marriage. Eager to please 3,000 rabidly anti-gay marriage activists, Sarkozy committed a serious political blunder that has been condemned by left and right alike as blatant political opportunism.
Back in 2007, Sarkozy told the gay magazine Têtu that "homosexual love must be recognised". When he became president, he said that "questions of sexuality must remain in the private sphere."
On September 25th last, he promised that once he’s elected “we’ll decide afterwards.” On November 3rd, he said: “If I announce a definitive position on [same-sex] marriage today, I’ll get everyone’s backs up, when I want to bring people together.”
Rewrite law
At the November 15th rally, Sarkozy promised to “rewrite” the law “from top to bottom” to create two kinds of marriage “one for homosexuals, one for heterosexuals”. In 2012, Sarkozy said it would be “unconstitutional” to create a marriage contract specifically for homosexuals.
Homosexual marriage, as now envisioned by Sarkozy, would ban recourse to surrogate mothers or medically assisted procreation – in vitro conception and sperm donors – for gays. Surrogacy is banned in France, while medically assisted procreation is allowed only for heterosexual couples.
Sarkozy’s offer of two types of marriage was not enough to satisfy the “Common Sense” militants, who booed him and chanted “Abrogation! Abrogation!”
Flustered
A flustered Sarkozy, unaccustomed to such opposition, gave in to the crowd. “If you prefer that we say ‘abrogate’ the Taubira law to make another . . . In French that means the same thing. It ends up with the same result. Well, if it makes you happy, frankly, it doesn’t cost much.”
The “Common Sense” militants were jubilant over Sarkozy’s circumlocution, but he had uncharacteristically gone against French public opinion. An Ifop poll published the same day showed 68 per cent of the French, and 58 per cent of UMP supporters, now approve of same-sex marriage.
Fifty-three per cent of respondents said gay couples should be allowed to adopt children.
Alain Juppé, the former prime minister who is challenging Sarkozy for the UMP’s nomination in the 2017 presidential election, yesterday distanced himself from Sarkozy’s position on same-sex marriage, saying: “I think that we have reached a turning point in the evolution of our societies. The idea that two people of the same sex can love one another, and thus benefit from official marriage status, is widely accepted.”
Juppé said homosexuals should be allowed to adopt children, but that surrogacy “is nothing other than a market for babies, for human beings”. That is also the position of the ruling socialists.
Disavowed stand
Sarkozy’s most faithful lieutenants have disavowed his stand on gay marriage. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, his former spokesperson, told Europe 1 radio yesterday she totally disagreed with her former boss. “I believe the abrogation of the Taubira law is neither desirable nor possible,” she said. At least four other prominent
Sarkozystes
joined in the criticism.
Hervé Mariton, a UMP deputy who will challenge Sarkozy on the November 29th ballot, has been consistent in his intention to abrogate the Taubira law.
Mariton denounced Sarkozy’s conversion as “an electoral manoeuvre to siphon off votes from me”, adding: “It’s political and moral crookery to want to use the same word – marriage – for two different things.”
