Hollande law to allow same-sex marriage

France’s socialist government has approved a law to allow same-sex marriage and adoption, defying angry protests from the Catholic church and the centre-right opposition.

The law, an election pledge by François Hollande, the president, would add France to a growing number of European countries which allow full marriage rights to same-sex couples, including the Scandinavian countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

In the US election on Tuesday, Maine and Maryland became the first US states to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote, raising to eight the number of states that allow it.

A cabinet meeting on Wednesday chaired by Mr Hollande, under pressure from within the Socialist party majority and from gay supporters to fulfil his pledge, agreed the measure, which is set to be the subject of fierce debate when it goes before parliament in January.

Both François Fillon and Jean-François Copé, candidates to head the opposition UMP party in a hardfought leadership election on November 18, have criticised the law.

UMP senator Serge Dassault, the veteran family patriarch of big defence supplier Dassault Aviation, said on Wednesday: “It is the end of the family, the end of children’s development and the end of education. It is an enormous danger to the nation.”

Mr Fillon, prime minister under former president Nicolas Sarkozy and favourite to take over as UMP chief, has adopted a less strident tone. But he has won strong applause on the campaign trail for expressing his firm opposition and criticising Mr Hollande for championing what Mr Fillon called a deeply divisive measure at a time when the priority should be dealing with the economic crisis.

Both he and Mr Copé have said that they would avoid conducting gay marriage ceremonies if they were faced with doing so in the role of a local mayor, which Mr Copé occupies.

At the weekend, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the French Catholic leader, attacked the planned law. “A vision of being human which does not recognise the difference of the sexes is a fraud that shakes the foundations of our society and instigates a discrimination between children,” he said.

Jewish and Muslim leaders have also condemned the law. Opponents have called for street demonstrations on November 17.

But Mr Hollande told the cabinet the law represented “progress for all of society”. An opinion poll in Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday showed 65 per cent support for same-sex marriage and 52 per cent support for gay adoption.

The law would extend the rights of marriage to same-sex couples, including the right to adopt children. It would recognise those married under foreign jurisdictions. Where appropriate, the words mother, father, husband and wife would be replaced by parent and spouse in official documents.

But it has been criticised by gay rights campaigners for not including the right to state-backed artificial insemination for female couples.