Is France’s Far Right Flirting With Gay Vote?

[Purveyor]

Latest update : 2014-12-13

France’s far right National Front party announced Friday that the cofounder of a prominent gay rights group was joining its ranks and will be a future candidate in elections, a surprise move for a group that has long been linked to homophobic views.

Party leader Marine Le Pen and Sébastian Chenu held a joint press conference in Paris to confirm he was leaving the right-wing opposition Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party to work alongside the anti-immigration National Front (FN).

Chenu, a former UMP general secretary, is mostly known in France as one of the founders of GayLib, a gay rights group that also describes itself as being in the centre-right of the political spectrum.

“I am joining Marine Le Pen because of her consistent views on Europe and social issues,” Chenu told reporters.

The 41-year-old politician accused the UMP of fully accepting France’s “submissive” relationship to the European Union. Chenu also added that the UMP and Nicolas Sarkozy, the party’s newly elected president, were “alarmingly” out of touch with LGBT issues.

“[Sarkozy] declared that he supported striking down the gay marriage law,” Chenu lamented in reference to a November 15 speech in front of party members. At the same time, he questioning the former French president’s true convictions on the subject: “he could have said the exact opposite if he was speaking to a gay rights group.”

more...

http://www.france24.com/en/20141213-france-far-right-national-front-flirting-gay-vote-chenu-philippot/

[Recursion]

1. The Netherlands has a similar alignment; generally anti-Muslim immigrant (nt)

[Albertoo]

2. The French 'Front National' politburo has a high proportion of gays ever since Marine Le Pen

It probably just so happened as the father of Marine Le Pen and founder of her party, jean marie Le Pen, is known for his anti-gay personal attitude.

[merrily]

3. I've asked several times: What would happen if the US right got sane on social issues?

[Albertoo]

4. and if they got sane on evolution?

There would still be health/education and the Gini index

[merrily]

5. Evolution is a social/cultural issue.

[Albertoo]

9. Your sentence would imply health/education and the Gini index are not social issues?

[MisterP]

6. that's the lavender-washing Islamophobia opens you up to

especially since the LePenists are tied to the Sedevacantist Catholics who *have* bombed LGBT-tied places

[pampango]

7. The FN remains opposed to marriage equality. Mr. Chenu may be the "Allen West" of far-right politics

in France.

... the FN officially remains opposed to marriage-equality legislation France adopted in 2013, commonly referred to as the “Mariage pour tous”, or Marriage for all, law. “I will remind you that we are opposed to the marriage for all question, and that we have declared we would repeal the law,” Louis Aliot, Vice-president of the FN ...

According to GayLib, by tying the knot with the far-right group, Chenu had “betrayed all the political values and objectives that he supposedly defended, in particular the rights of the LGBT community.” “Sébastian Chenu is joining a political platform that has publicly expressed its rejection of marriage and adoption for same-sex couples,” GayLib deplored in a statement.

In his 2012 book “Why are gays turning to the right” (Pourquoi les gays sont passés à droite, Seuil) French journalist and writer Didier Lestrade suggested gay men in France who feel threatened by hardline Muslim rhetoric are being encouraged by the FN’s anti-Islam rhetoric.

Sylvain Crépon, a French researcher and expert on far right movements in Europe, has said FN leaders are ready to exploit the trend – whether it is widespread or only anecdotal – for electoral gain.

And, of course, the EU is a strong force supporting the rights of the LGBT community in all European countries. For Mr. Chenu to join forces with the far-right and against the EU is damaging to LGBT rights on both fronts.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Chenu was previously in something like the Log Cabin Club of France GayLib

So it is not really all that surprising. He's a right winger. Always was.