France: Homophobic and anti-Semitic National Front win elections

[Behind the Aegis]

A far-right party known to be homophobic and opposed to same-sex marriage has dominated France’s European Election vote, while its leader called for the pro-same-sex marriage President to dissolve the country’s parliament.

The National Front party, led by Marine Le Pen, won its first victory in the election, gaining around 25% of the vote, exit polls revealed.

Polls estimate that the group will hold between 22 and 25 seats in the European Parliament, up from three it currently has.

On the announcement of the vote, Le Pen called for President Francois Hollande to dissolve France’s parliament. Hollande was heavily supportive of same-sex marriage, and signed a law to allow it last May, despite some right-wing opposition.

more: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2014/05/26/france-homophobic-far-right-party-triumphs-in-european-parliament-election/

[theHandpuppet]

1. Interesting article on the French anti-gay movement

As an aside, Co-Founder and President of La Manif Pour Tous, Ludovine de la Rochere, will be a featured guest speaker at NOM's "March for Marriage" this June in D.C.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/anti-gay-marriage-protests-in-france.html
March 18, 2014
An Anti-Gay-Marriage Tea Party, French Style?
Posted by Alexander Stille

(excerpt)
Some in France have compared La Manif Pour Tous to the Tea Party movement in the United States. At a difficult moment in French life—with unemployment at eleven per cent, Hollande unable to gain traction, and a pessimistic public—La Manif Pour Tous has surprised political parties on the right and the left with its ability to bring people into the streets. “Our country is in the midst of an economic crisis at the same time there is a social crisis,” Ludovine de la Rochère, the president of the Manif Pour Tous, said at a recent rally. “More profoundly, we are in a crisis of meaning, a moral crisis. The French are the biggest consumers of anti-depressant drugs in Europe. … And yet, within our reach, there is a reservoir, a bearer of meaning, of energy, of solidarity, of relationships: the family, the source of all the human and economic riches of the nation—of all nations—and a barrier against crime, against despair, and against all extremisms.”

While there are some common elements, the differences between La Manif Pour Tous and the Tea Party are perhaps even more interesting. Social issues—family, marriage, sexuality, homosexuality—have suddenly become highly charged in France, but they play out so differently that they illustrate what’s distinctive about France—and the U.S.—in ways that scramble many notions of left and right, conservative and liberal.

What is similar to the Tea Party is that La Manif Pour Tous emerged outside the structure of the traditional French parties—both the Gaullist U.M.P. and the far-right National Front of Marine Le Pen. As with the Tea Party, its supporters claim to represent a silent majority that is not being heard by the élites in the capital. But the Tea Party turned quickly to electoral politics, with what can be seen as either an accession to or a partial takeover of the Republican Party. “La Manif Pour Tous has gone out of its way to keep its distance from both the U.M.P. and the National Front,” Tartakowsky said. It also rejects being labelled as on the right.

Indeed, some of the movement’s positions would place it in the center or center-left of the American debate on social issues. For example, La Manif Pour Tous does not oppose abortion, even though many of its leaders say that, as a private matter, they are against it. “It’s not our issue,” de la Rochère has said repeatedly, when pressed.... MORE at link posted above

[burrowowl]

2. Scary!

A lot of voters stayed home, like we did in 2012.
Idiots