French Culture Minister Wants “Homophobe” Ousted

A quote from Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the French minister of Culture and Communications, on the French television network Canal+, 28 January 2007

[The comments of French parliamentarian Christian Vanneste on homosexuality] are shocking. They have been condemned by the court. […] These comments are not worthy of the UMP [the governing French “conservative” party, to which both Donnedieu de Vabres and Vanneste belong]. If the UMP authorities decide to exclude him, I think they are entitled to do so.

The French Right?

The French right may be right of the french left, but all in all I would consider them left of centre, just not as left as the others.

Tweedledum and tweedledee

I think the bogus "right" is following the cultural lead given by the dominant left-wing ideology. Maybe the French Culture Minister doesn't want to alienate the media. He probably doesn't hold a strong opinion on free speech and homosexuality.

Tweedledum and tweedledee

Thus, it would appear that the French 'right' may end up showing the same intolerance for divergent opinions in the case of Vanneste (opinions on homosexuality), as the French 'left' does in the case of Freche (opinions on the racial composition of the national soccer team). That would suggest that intolerance for 'unorthodox' opinions is neither an exclusive problem (or characteristic) of the French right nor the French left, but rather a problem of contemporary French culture. No wonder, that it is also a severe problem of contemporary Belgian culture.