Christine Boutin

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Christine Boutin
Christine Boutin

Christine Boutin (born in Levroux, Indre, France on February 6, 1944) is a French politician and one of the major figures of the religious right in France. As of 2007, she has been elected deputy to the French National Assembly for the Yvelines département but has not taken part in the Assembly because she has been minister for urban development [1] since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy. She was a candidate in the 2002 French presidential election, in which she scored 1.19% on the first round of balloting.[1]

As a strong voice for moral conservatism, she is the leader of the Forum des républicains sociaux (Forum of Social Republicans, FRS), a French conservative Christian-democratic party, member of the greater right-wing UMP union party, lead by Nicolas Sarkozy.. She once was a member of the UDF party, but joined the UMP when it was founded in 2002.

She became somewhat famous in 1998 because of her opposition to the PACS domestic partnership plan, arguing that its adoption by the government would encourage homosexuality.

She also founded in 1993 the anti-abortion NGO Alliance pour les droits de la vie (ADV), considered the largest pro-life organization in France.[2] The same year, she became a consultant for the Pontifical Council for the Family headed by Cardinal Lopez-Trujillo.

In 2006, she supported the "global license" flat-fee authorization for sharing of copyrighted files over the Internet in a heated parliamentary debate on the DADVSI law.[citation needed] She also advocates guaranteed minimum income[citation needed] and expanded housing rights (Droit au logement) [3]. She consider the situation of prisons in France to be a scandal and has argued for a drastic reduction of inmates as well as improving their life-conditions.[citation needed]

In a November 2006 interview, published in 2007, she stated that George W. Bush might have been behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.[4][5]

In December 2006 she announced that she would not be a candidate for the 2007 French Presidential election and pledged her support for the Conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy [6]. After Sarkozy's victory in the presidential election, on May 18, 2007 Boutin was named Minister of Housing and the City in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon.[7] She has taken as advisors the pro-life activist Christine de Chefdebien , condemned in 1992 for a anti-abortion occupation of a hospital [8], the priest Jean-Marie Petitclerc and the traditionalist Catholic Jean-Paul Bolufer, formed by La Cité Catholique group and close to the Opus Dei [9].[10][11] [12] — Bolufer was forced to resign in December 2007 after that the Canard enchaîné revealed that he was beneffiting of undue favors, renting his flat way below the normal price [13].

[edit] Quotes

  • When asked if she believed that the Bush administration was behind the 9/11 attacks, she replied:

I think that it's possible… I think it is possible. I think it more especially as I know that the sites that speak of this problem are the sites that have the greatest numbers of visits…. And so, I tell myself, I who am extremely sensitive … to the new techniques of information and communication, that this expression of the mass of the people cannot be without any truth. I'm not telling you that I adhere to that position, but let's say that, nevertheless, I'm questioning myself a bit on this question.[14][15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Official results from the Ministry of the Interior
  2. ^ (2006) Extrême France : Les mouvements frontistes, nationaux-radicaux, royalistes, catholiques traditionalistes et provie. Grasset & Fasquelle. ISBN 2246666015. 
  3. ^ Law proposition on housing right, 28 September 2005 (French)
  4. ^ Bush behind 9/11, says French politician, Northern Territory News, July 7, 2007.
  5. ^ Video of interview by Karl Zéro (French)
  6. ^ France 2 news, 2nd December 2006
  7. ^ Communiqué de la Présidence de la République concernant la composition du gouvernement de M. François FILLON, Premier ministre. , Élysée Palace, May 18, 2007.
  8. ^ L'Humanité, COMMANDO ANTI-IVG : LE PROCUREUR DEMANDE 4 MOIS AVEC SURSIS", 4 September 1992 (French)
  9. ^ Christine Boutin nomme un directeur de cabinet formé par l'intégriste Cité catholique : Jean-Paul Bolufer (French)
  10. ^ Le cabinet très catholique de Christine Boutin, RTL, 10 July 2007 (French)
  11. ^ F. Venner, Extrême France, Grasset, 2006 (extract (French)
  12. ^ Christine Boutin nomme un directeur de cabinet formé par l'intégriste Cité catholique : Jean-Paul Bolufer, ProChoix (French)
  13. ^ Logement abusif: le directeur de cabinet de Boutin démissionne, Rue 89, 20 December 2007 (French)
  14. ^ « Je pense que c'est possible… je pense que c'est possible. Je le pense d'autant plus que je sais que les sites qui parlent de ce problème sont des sites qui ont les plus gros taux de visites. Et donc je me dis, moi qui suis très sensibilisée au problème des nouvelles techniques de l'information et de la communication, que cette expression de la masse et du peuple ne peut pas être sans aucune vérité. Donc je ne te dis pas que j'adhère à cette posture, mais disons que je m'interroge quand même un petit peu sur cette question. »
    "(French)"Christine Boutin rattrapée par ses propos controversés sur le 11-Septembre", Le Monde, 2007-07-05. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. 
  15. ^ "In France, a senior pol dares to question the 9/11 tale", San Francisco Chronicle, 2007-07-06. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. 

[edit] External links

v • d • e
First Fillon Cabinet
Coat of Arms of France
v • d • e
Second Fillon Cabinet
Coat of Arms of France