The Minister Delegate for Local Authorities, Caroline Cayeux, is in the hot seat, Friday July 15, 2022. A letter questioning her continuation in the government after remarks deemed homophobic should be released at the end of the week.
[Mis à jour le 15 juillet 2022 à 13h30] Caroline Cayeux was appointed Minister Delegate for Local Authorities on Monday July 4, 2022, but her post could already be suspended. Mayor LR of Beauvais, the 73-year-old elected caused an outcry after saying, Tuesday, July 12, “I have a lot of friends among all these people”, about homosexual people. Friday July 15, France info affirms that a tribune, signed by members of the presidential majorityparliamentarians and former ministers, should be published at the end of the week in order to request the departure of Caroline Cayeux from the government.
The Minister Delegate for Local Authorities apologized on Twitter on Tuesday July 12, before repeating them during an interview at the ParisianThursday, July 14, 2022. In this interview, reported by 20 minutesCaroline Cayeux explains: “The remarks mentioned date back ten years. […] I understand that these stupid and clumsy words could have hurt so much. I would like to renew all my most sincere apologies here, because they do not reflect my thoughts at all”. On France Inter, Friday July 15, Marlene Schiappa, Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy, is asking for action from Caroline Cayeux. “If she wishes to do so, she can support the opening of LGBT + centers all over the country, she can support ‘pride’ [marche des Fiertés]“, she asserted.
It all starts Monday, July 11, with a magazine stand Stubborn demanding the departure from the government of all those who have been linked to the Manif pour tous. Tuesday, July 12, Caroline Cayeux, is questioned about her positions about marriage for all, on Public Sénat. Indeed, when she was a senator, she called same-sex union a “whim” and a “design against nature.” The minister first assured that she stood by her words, then said that she had been enforcing the law since it was passed. She adds that she has never paraded with the Manif pour tous, before saying: “I have a lot of friends among all these people and frankly, it’s a bad trial that I’m being made”.
The expression “these people” immediately reacted to many politicians, journalists and Internet users, leading the minister to apologize on Tuesday afternoon. “My words hurt many of you. I deeply regret them, they were understandably inappropriate,” she wrote on Twitter. On Wednesday July 13, several associations fighting against homophobia (Mousse, STOP Homophobia, LGBT Sports, LGBT Education, LGBT Families and Adheos) announced that they had filed a complaint against Caroline Cayeux.
The politician was born on 1er November 1948 in Paris, she is the daughter of Pierre Fournier, former president of the Council of the National Order of Pharmacists from 1979 to 1987. After a degree in English and a higher diploma in private international law, she became a teacher and then head of a professional training organization. She began her political career in 1997, when Philippe Séguin called her to the executive committee of the RPR. In 2001, she created a surprise by beating the outgoing mayor of Beauvais, a socialist in place for 24 years. She is a former support of François Fillon.
In addition to her duties as mayor, Caroline Cayeux was regional councilor for Picardie from 2004 to 2011, then senator from 2011 to 2017, where she was vice-president of the social affairs commission. Since 1er January 2020, she is also president of the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion. She left the Les Républicains party in 2018 and signed, in 2021, a published forum speak Sunday newspaperin which she joins 600 local elected officials in favor of a second term for Emmanuel Macron.