President of France asks to withdraw a cabinet candidate for being homophobic

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The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, September 21, 2024, p. 19

Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron has rejected the candidacy of Republican Laurence Garnier for the Ministry of Families because of her statements in support of the anti-gay marriage movement The demonstration for everyone (The demonstration for everyone), reported the BFMTV channel yesterday.

“Emmanuel Macron asked (Prime Minister) Michel Barnier to remove Laurence Garnier, criticized for her stance on The demonstration for everyone”, the outlet reported, citing a source with knowledge of the matter. Garnier also voted against shielding abortion in the Constitution, a milestone approved in France in February, and against creating a crime in 2021 against conversion therapies, saying that these practices seek cure to homosexual people.

The interlocutor consulted by the television station added that Macron does not want the new government dismantle their reformsnoting that Barnier’s views on marriage and family contradict those of the previous team, while also noting that French law does not allow the country’s president to form a government or prevent the prime minister from appointing anyone to a position.

The left-wing opposition, which refused to participate in the unity government that the president intends to overcome the current political crisis in France, quickly described this proposal as a immense provocationaccording to left-wing MP Sarah Legrain.

If confirmed, the appointment would be the opposite of the current Minister for Children, Youth and Families, centrist Sarah El Haïry, who made public her homosexuality and her pregnancy through assisted reproduction, local media reported.

The night before yesterday, the Prime Minister proposed, in addition to Garnier, the name of another senator from his own conservative party, The Republicans (LR), Bruno Retailleau as Minister of the Interior.

Retailleau advocates tightening Macron’s immigration policy with a vision close to the far right. During the riots in the Paris suburbs in 2023, he spoke of a regression towards ethnic origins in these areas with a population of foreign origin.

These names have caused unrest among the centrist ranks of the future government, local media reported. After all the work we have done on social issues, Laurence Garnier and Bruno Retailleau in the government, for me, is a no!wrote Macronist MP Ludovic Mendes on his X account.