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When male heterosexual leaders politicize gender and sexual issues: The logic of representation in the 2014 Bordeaux municipal election campaign

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French Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

Gender and sexual politics were major issues during the 2014 French municipal elections campaign. A few weeks before the election, France experienced large-scale campaigns against gay marriage and gender equality policies. The aim of this article is to question the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation in the context of the municipal election campaign in Bordeaux. In the context of the ‘demo for all’, the return of a religious-based opposition between ‘moral order and permissiveness’ calls for further investigation. This article thus offers an original point of view based on fieldwork at the municipal level and polling data.

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Notes

  1. The Charter is rather ambiguous as regards the implementation of the law: it does not mention any refusal to celebrate same-sex mariages.

  2. The ‘Parity’ laws introduced legal requirements for parties to present 50 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men.

  3. Previously the Union pour la majorité présidentielle – Union for the Presidential Majority – and, since 2012 the Union pour un mouvement populaire – Union for a Popular Movement (Haegel, 2012). Now, this party is named ‘Les Républicains’.

  4. Sud-Ouest 29 January 2014 ‘Semi-Renewal of Juppé’s team: From Endemol to the Town Hall: the Calmels Surprise (Equipe à moitie renouvelée pour Juppé: d’Endemol à la mairie: la surprise Calmels): ‘with a look like a laser, perfectly controlled hair, impeccably turned out, and a smile to resist any test, Virginie Calmels, 42, has the look of a well-brought up young woman’. (Translated).

  5. (ibid).

  6. These remarks, reacting to a poll giving him 24 per cent of votes (compared with 38 per cent in April 2013), were said to have been made in mid-February to an AFP journalist before being made public by Sud-Ouest on 1 March. ‘Contacted by Sud-Ouest he (VF) explained: “People criticize me for not waffling on. Speaking as an expert, being 30 points behind makes it difficult. But that makes no difference to my determination, I will be the mayor of Bordeaux” ’.

  7. It should nevertheless be stressed that nearly 60 per cent (58.9 per cent) of the sample of 600 persons were individuals with a graduate level of education or higher.

  8. Aged 42, four children, CEO of a real estate company. A declared supporter of the line taken by Ludovine de la Rochère (co-founder and spokesman for La manif pour tous) he filed LMPT’s articles of association and is its co-treasurer.

  9. ‘Municipales à Bordeaux: des associations demandent le retrait d’un candidat de la liste Juppé’, Sud-Ouest, 30 January 2014, http://www.sudouest.fr/2014/01/30/-1445794-4583.php.

  10. ‘La part à droite de Juppé’, Sud-Ouest, 31 January 2014. http://www.sudouest.fr/2014/01/31/la-part-a-droite-de-juppe-1446896-2780.php.

  11. Sud-Ouest 13 February 2014.

  12. Press conference, Bordeaux Palais des expositions, 1 February 2014, ‘the Socialists stir up sensitive issues...to cause tensions to arise’.

  13. ‘This movement [Manif pour tous] has transformed itself into the advocate for defense of the family, the sole fundamental unit in our society, conceived from the union of a man and a woman, a unit of love, equilibrium and education for children, and the generations to come. My municipal program has a special place for families with precise, concrete proposals. As an opponent of homosexual “marriage”, I will refuse to carry out this type of marriage.’ he declared to the infos bordeaux independent press agency which had asked him about the marriage for all issue, http://www.infos-bordeaux.fr/2013/actualites/entretien-avec-jacques-colombier-fn-nous-representerons-a-la-mairie-de-bordeaux-tous-les-oublies-et-laisses-pour-compte-5276.

  14. ‘Petite guerre entre amis au Front national en Gironde’, lefigaro.fr, 20 June 2014, http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/coulisses/2014/06/20/25006-20140620ARTFIG00164-petite-guerre-entre-amis-au-front-national-de-gironde.php.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Emile Durkheim, 11, allée Ausone, Pessac Cedex, 33607, France

    Clément Arambourou, Magali Della Sudda, Victor Marneur, Frédéric Neyrat & Marion Paoletti

  2. Université Rennes 2, Service Formation Continue, Campus La Harpe, Avenue Charles Tillon, Rennes, 35044, France

    Fanny Bugnon

Authors
  1. Clément Arambourou
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  2. Magali Della Sudda
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  3. Fanny Bugnon
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  4. Victor Marneur
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  5. Frédéric Neyrat
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  6. Marion Paoletti
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Correspondence to Magali Della Sudda.

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Arambourou, C., Sudda, M., Bugnon, F. et al. When male heterosexual leaders politicize gender and sexual issues: The logic of representation in the 2014 Bordeaux municipal election campaign. Fr Polit 14, 83–100 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/fp.2015.23

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