A right-wing mayor is being prosecuted for refusing to perform the civil wedding ceremony of an Algerian national who was under an obligation to leave French territory. Refusing to plead guilty, he must now stand trial in a criminal court. Parliamentarians are seizing on this grotesque situation to call for a change in the law.
In July 2023, Robert Ménard, mayor of the southern town of Béziers and a well-known figure of the French Right, refused to officiate the wedding of a French woman and an Algerian man who was under an obligation to leave French territory (obligation de quitter le territoire français or OQTF) and therefore present illegally in France at the time of the request. The couple then took the case to court, and the verdict was in: according to French law, a mayor has no right to refuse to conduct a wedding, for whatever reason.
Ménard was finally summoned to the local court in Montpellier on Tuesday, February 18th for a “procedure of appearance on a prior admission of guilt (CRPC)”, also known as ‘pleading guilty.’ This involved him admitting his guilt to the public prosecutor, which he refused to do.
“It’s not my fault, it’s the fault of the person who was obliged to leave the country. I don’t even want a symbolic sentence. Because that would be an admission of my guilt, and I’m not guilty of anything in this case,” Ménard insisted. “Sometimes laws are bad laws and we have to change them,” he added.
A few days ago, the mayor expressed his indignation in the regional press. “I think it’s crazy. This person was under an OQTF. I warned everyone: if they wanted to deport him, they just had to come to the town hall that day.”
But the French justice system, rather than enforcing the deportation order, preferred to attack the mayor for his common sense. On that day, the ‘fiancé’s’ proper place was not in the wedding hall, but on a plane to Algeria.
Having refused to plead guilty, the mayor will now have to appear before a criminal court. In this case, Ménard, who the press refers to as “close to the far right” because of his many friendships within the French conservative Right and the Rassemblement National, risks up to five years imprisonment and a fine of €75,000.
No stranger to politics and the media (he is the former director of Reporters Without Borders and the founder of the conservative news site Boulevard Voltaire), he wants to make an example of his case. Many elected officials, including mayors from the region wearing their tricolour sashes symbolising their office, had come to the court to show their support for Ménard.
Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau and Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin have expressed their support for the mayor of Béziers. They explained to the press that they understood Ménard’s position and that they were in favour of a change in the law. Entering into marriage to obtain papers and remain in France is a well-known tactic that has long been recognised by the authorities. This is referred to as a ‘grey marriage.’
The young man that Ménard refused to marry was nevertheless deported to Algeria two weeks after the aborted marriage attempt. The fiancée claims to be living in a “nightmare” and to have fallen into a depression.
On Thursday, February 20th, a bill supported by a centrist MP is to be submitted to the Senators for consideration, aimed at “prohibiting a marriage in France when one of the future spouses is residing illegally in the territory.”
