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.
