‘Hollande adopted gay marriage to satisfy lobby that financed him’

Francois Hollande didn’t expect such vast public outcry when he signed the same-sex marriage law in order to satisfy the small lobby, which sponsored his campaign for French presidency, Bruno Vercken from La Manif Pour Tous movement told RT.

Central Paris has witnessed violence on its streets over the weekend, a mass rally in protest at laws allowing same-sex marriage turned into clashes.

Police cracked down on far-right activists who had joined the demonstration, arresting 350 people for refusing to disperse or occupying private property. 

Bruno Vercken, regional coordinator of the anti-gay marriage movement that took part in protests on Sunday, says that so many Frenchmen are speaking out against the same-sex marriage and adoption law because it violates the rights of the children.

RT:Did the police go too far in the way they dealt with your protest?

Bruno Vercken: Yes, indeed. If you look at the numbers since last November several millions of people have gone into street to protest and you won’t be able to provide any picture nor any film of any broken glass, any burned car, and any violence during the protests themselves. At the same time, many people have been arrested. Several hundred people have been arrested by the police just because they were wearing suits with this logo there [shows the logo of the Anti-Gay Marriage Movement]. No longer than last Saturday, people were arrested in Paris because there were two of them walking together. And, at the same time, many people and no later than two weeks ago when Paris Saint-Germain celebrated this title in the soccer league in France, many people ruined some shops and they were not arrested. 

RT:What are the reasons for the police behaving in this manner towards the same-sex marriage protestors?

BV: The government is extremely surprised and annoyed by the breadth and the length, the duration of the movement. Francois Hollande had not anticipated that allowing same-sex marriage and adoption would create such a concern about so many people in France. He did this promise to satisfy a small lobby, particularly active lobby, who financed his presidential campaign. He didn’t anticipate that same-sex marriage was meaning in France adoption and plenary adoption – which immediately triggers the risk of losing the biological link between the kid and his parents. And in France this is very unique. And people are protesting against that to defend the right of children. 

RT:Was this all about your objection to gay-marriage, or was it hijacked by groups with other agendas?

BV: Really not, I’m personally a member of a political party in France, and the takeover of this movement by any political party is clearly not at stake. Many of these people are, by the way, from left or from right so it transcends the classical left-right boundaries.   

RT:France is now the ninth European country to legalise gay marriage. Why can't you move with the times?  

BV: You could put nine ladies together you wouldn’t be able to create a baby even in one month. And I think people protest here because they… It’s not a matter of being modern, going along with times. It’s really against, at one point in time, to say: Who’s at stake there? Have we thought, have we considered the right of the weakest person there - who’s the kid? And, you know, when a kid has lost his parents, probably, his dearest wish is to be adopted by a man and a woman. You, me are the sons of a man and a woman and in this law there’s a deep lie – imbedded in the law – is to make people believe in the future that they can be born from two men or two women. And this is extremely dangerous and, by the way, we’ll open soon the rights to medically adopted procreation and surrogate mothers, which people in France are extremely worried about and are extremely against.