It only took a few days for Caroline Cayeux, Mayor of Beauvais, appointed Minister Delegate in charge of Local Authorities on July 4, to make the headlines. But maybe not in the way she hoped. The former LR, rallied to Emmanuel Macron a few months before the presidential election, was the subject of a petition published by the magazine Têtu, in particular signed by deputies from Nupes, demanding the departure of ministers in the past “Demonstration for all “.
Invited to comment on Public senate, Tuesday morning, the elected representative succeeded in giving national scope to the initiative of the left-wing coalition, by linking controversial remarks on the set. If she claimed to have “never been part of the Manif pour tous”, she confirmed the remarks made in 2012, when she was a senator for Oise: “Marriage for all and the right to adoption is not simply a design that goes against nature, but it is more serious. »
She then qualified marriage for all as a “whim” and “a disrespectful opening of rights to nature and insane”. And if she continued by pointing out that the town hall of Beauvais had respected the law by celebrating homosexual marriages, Caroline Cayeux drove the point home by indicating that she had “many friends among these people”. A sentence that had the effect of igniting social networks.
Associations, elected officials, members of the LGBT community, quickly stepped up to the plate. “Nothing can excuse such violent remarks”, reacts a user. On Twitter, where the hashtags “#Cayeuxdmission” and “#cesgenslà” were among the most used in France this Wednesday morning, the SOS homophobia association notably challenged the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.
“Anachronistic remarks” for Olivier Véran
“Are you going to keep Caroline Cayeux in your government, knowing that she has confirmed that she is maintaining her LGTBIphobic remarks made during the debate on marriage for all and that she advocates her open-mindedness through other LGBTIphobic remarks? Since then, several anti-homophobia associations have announced that they have filed a complaint for “public insult” with the Paris prosecutor’s office. And it was not the very light interventions of his fellow ministers that calmed things down.
Olivia Grégoire, in charge of Small and Medium Enterprises, thus declared on BFM TV, this Wednesday, without endorsing the words of the mayor of Beauvais, that “we have the right to make mistakes once”. Olivier Véran, former Minister of Health and current government spokesperson, for his part spoke of “anachronistic remarks” and stressed that “the subject is closed”, following the apology message published Tuesday evening by Caroline Cayeux.
“Since this morning, I read and hear your messages, expressed the elected. My words hurt many of you. I deeply regret them, they were naturally inappropriate. Far from appeasing the growing controversy, this outing only increased the number of reactions, especially in Oise, HIS department.
“Frankly, I am ashamed that she comes from Oise, sighs a member of the LGBT community, living in Compiègne. For once we send a minister to the government, she has to trigger a controversy with homophobic remarks… From the second week. A feeling shared by Myriam, who lives in the rural center of the department.
“In recent years, we have felt progress in our interactions with people, even in the countryside,” she explains. Generally, with my companion, we are the first to defend the department, especially vis-à-vis our friends who live in the Paris region and who have pictures of the Oise. Here we go backwards. And only a few weeks after the organization, in Compiègne, of the first Gay pride of the department.
A demonstration which brought together several hundred people, in the flagship city of the Manif pour tous in Picardy. Once again, LGBT activists saw it as proof that mentalities were changing. “I was pleasantly surprised, smiles a retired Compiégnois who crossed the procession. I never thought I’d see that in the imperial city, it’s good. “Asked about the words of Caroline Cayeux, he shrugs his shoulders: “It surprises someone, in the Oise, that she makes this kind of remark? »
“We find it sad and unfortunate”
“We find it sad and unfortunate that the Oise is represented by such an unprogressive vision and once again exposes its homophobia, regrets Claire Lequièvre, of the Oisian association Clin d’œil LGBT +, at the origin of Gay pride compiegnoise. We find ourselves faced with a person who persists in ten-year-old comments and is very clumsy in his excuses. These people, it’s super violent for a whole category of the population. »
File a complaint ? A priori not. “We will continue to follow the case, specifies Claire Lequièvre. There are a lot of calls for resignation, we’ll see what happens even if we don’t necessarily ask for it. When you access national responsibilities, it’s still a shame not to have evolved like the rest of society. »
Olivier Paccaud, senator from Oise, defends her
On the other side of the controversy, there are also people who are indignant, on the Internet as in the department. “We can’t say anything anymore, if we’re not pro LGBT, we have to be quiet? », asks Martine, « Beauvaisienne for 30 years » and « proud of our mayor ». Other support from Caroline Cayeux, Olivier Paccaud, senator (DVD). “The law has legalized marriage for all and Caroline Cayeux does not question the law, indicates the elected official. Wanting to make her resign because she expresses an opinion contrary to the passionaria of marriage for all is totally excessive. They are establishing a thought police worthy of intellectual totalitarianism. »
A reaction that is not shared by all elected officials from Ois, far from it. On the front line, Roxane Lundy, elected to the municipal council of Beauvais, member of the left opposition. “By her repeated remarks, Caroline Cayeux aroused great emotion in the country and in Beauvais, begins the candidate of Nupes in the last legislative elections. She is still mayor of Beauvais and her words have an impact on the image of our city. »
The municipal opposition asks for a rainbow flag on the town hall of Beauvais
And to challenge the mayor of Beauvais, inviting her to materialize her regrets symbolically “by displaying the rainbow flag on the pediment of the town hall, emblem of the fights for the dignity of LGBT people and equality, as is done on many official buildings around the world. ” Laurence Rossignol, senator (PS) of the Oise, is ironic: “At least, Caroline Cayeux does not hide her opinions. “And to add that she does not see why the mayor of Beauvais would have changed her mind, “even if what she says and confirms today is very shocking”.
More nuanced, Maxime Minot, LR deputy, wants to insist on marriage for all, which “is too important and too precious a subject to indulge in controversies which no longer have to be in 2022”. And if he cannot endorse “the words defended by the minister”, he prefers to see a kind of “clumsiness”. Contacted, Caroline Cayeux did not wish to speak.