PARIS (Reuters) - Segolene Royal, the Socialist frontrunner for France's 2007 presidential poll, has said gay couples should be allowed to marry and adopt children, laying out her position on what could become a divisive election issue. Royal said France needed to do a lot more work to make sure homosexuals were treated fairly. "It is essential that everybody has equal rights and dignities and the chance to express themselves freely," Royal told the gay magazine Tetu in an interview to be published on Wednesday. The issue of gay marriage caused a stir in France two years ago when a maverick mayor performed the country's first gay wedding. The marriage was promptly declared illegal. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's conservative government opposes gay marriages and does not allow same-sex couples to adopt children, but has given homosexual couples who form a civil union more financial rights.
Royal said France needed to do a lot more work to make sure homosexuals were treated fairly.
"It is essential that everybody has equal rights and dignities and the chance to express themselves freely," Royal told the gay magazine Tetu in an interview to be published on Wednesday.
The issue of gay marriage caused a stir in France two years ago when a maverick mayor performed the country's first gay wedding. The marriage was promptly declared illegal.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's conservative government opposes gay marriages and does not allow same-sex couples to adopt children, but has given homosexual couples who form a civil union more financial rights.
One minute she's socially authoritarian, insisiting that vandals should be senetenced to life in military servitude for minor transgressions, the next minute she's socially liberal on gay marriage.
Has learnt from the British Labour party that a cheap headline is better than no headline. Wonder if she'll learn the leson more apparent every day that if you base your policies on headline-grabbing, then sooner or later the headline will grab the policy. keep to the Fen Causeway
Morally, gay rights and an authoritarian youth policy are 2 different kettle of fish. The former is about doctrine and unreasoned social prejudice, while the latter appeals to voters' fear for their own safety and property. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
Unfortunately. Though Jérôme convinced me that she is rather sly in here media politics, e.g. that she could appear both centrist and leftist by morphing a common right-wing ciriticism into a left-wing one, but I still fear where this could lead. Someone quoted weeks ago an American's interview with here where she proved to be clueless about American freelancers' working conditions, and I'd fear if her knowledge is so superficial in other matters too. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
