Invited on LCI, the Minister Delegate for Transport considers the Minister’s statements “extremely hurtful”.
It all started with a petition published in the magazine Têtu, signed by around fifty left-wing deputies (including Adrien Quatennens, Mathilde Panot or even Danièle Obono) demanding “departure“of three ministers”Notorious LGBTQIAphobes” to “passed Demonstration for all“.
Among those targeted, Caroline Cayeux, Minister Delegate for Territorial Cohesion: “Madame Cayeux, a senator in 2012, described marriage for all as “a whim”, “a disrespectful openness to nature and senseless”.»
Asked about this on Public Sénat, the minister denied having used the term “caprice“While specifying to assume his position at the time:”Of course, I stand by my words.“And to add:”I have always said that the law [du mariage pour tous], if it were passed, I would apply it. I have a lot of friends among all these people and, frankly, it’s a bad trial that I’m being made. It upset me a lot.»
“My words hurt»
A remark that the oppositions did not fail to point out. The deputy Les Républicains Éric Ciotti for his part declared on Twitter: “Intolerable! Minister Caroline Cayeux maintains her words, she who qualified homosexuality as being “against nature”. (…) The Prime Minister must intervene and cannot endorse these remarks!” On the other side of the political spectrum, the vice-president of the LFI-Nupes group, Clément Guetté, castigated: “It’s filthy. She must apologize and withdraw her remarks.»
Faced with the outcry caused by her remarks, the minister apologized in a tweet: “My words hurt many of you. I deeply regret them, they were naturally inappropriate. Equal rights must always be a priority in our action.»
“We have the right to make a mistake once»
And if Olivia Grégoire felt that “we have the right to make a mistake once“, Clément Beaune, he reacted at greater length on LCI, describing Caroline Cayeux’s remarks as”extremely hurtful“. “I am one of “those people”said the Minister Delegate for Transport. But I’m not saying this as an individual, I’m saying it out of political conviction. The fight for equality (…) I will always lead it. I told Caroline Cayeux, she published an apology and corrected her remarks.»
The MP for Paris also made a point of recalling the “political line” of the government. “Defend, assume, extend marriage for all, PMA, the fight against conversion therapy… this is the fight I will always lead and I will not be silent on this subject, without creating controversy, but saying what I think.»