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Gay marriage opponents mass take to Parisian streets for final rally
Hundreds of thousands of people take part in final protest in Paris against bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption
25 March 2013, 12:00am
Nestor Laiviera
Nestor Laiviera
1 min read
Opinion polls suggest a majority of French people still support gay marriage but their numbers have fallen in recent weeks.
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in a final protest in Paris against a bill to legalise same-sex marriage and adoption.
There were scuffles and police fired tear gas as the protest spilled over onto the Champs Elysees, the avenue which runs past the president's palace.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls said there had been dozens of arrests.
France's Senate is due to debate the bill next month after it was passed by the lower house of parliament.
President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party and its allies dominate both houses.
Opinion polls suggest a majority of French people still support gay marriage but their numbers have fallen in recent weeks.
Banners held up along the march route read: "We want work not gay marriage" and "No to gayxtremism".
Police had banned the protesters from the Champs Elysees, but groups of them broke through to the avenue.
Officers used batons and tear gas to try to dislodge several hundred people who gathered there as the main demonstration ended.
Valls said the remaining protesters were mostly from far-right groups.
However, the head of the centre-right opposition UMP party, Jean-François Cope, said some families on the protest had been caught up in the tear gas.
Emmanuel Mallia •
Sparku, this is also a question of nature. Even the queers are born out of a woman, who had sex with a man. This is nature, anything else is a handicap. The authorities, including the church, should rather encourage more medical research and find out, why queers are born and raised in a natural family, and not grant them the so called rights !.
David Bongailas •
@Seracin...........the FRench catholic church and these lunatics protesting on the streets have absolutley no right to do so. Gay marriages were part of Hollmande's manifesto.....the people voted overwhelmingly in favour......it's called democracy. And by the by, Joseph Muscat has also been given a very clear mandate to implement legislation in relation to civil partnerships. So neither you nor the church have any right to complain.
Emmanuel Mallia •
Yes, and they are fully supported by the French Catholic church. And here in Malta, what is the church doing ? All we heard from the local church, during the last election was about the MEPA. This is the main interest of the Maltese church- property !!!!!
