
Christine Boutin
'Christine Boutin' (born in
Levroux,
Indre,
France on
February 6,
1944) is a
conservative French politician. As of
2004, she is a deputy to the
French National Assembly for the
Yvelines ''
département''. She was a candidate in the
2002 French presidential election, in which she scored 1.19% on the first round of balloting.
She is the leader of the ''
Forum des républicains sociaux'' (Forum of Social Republicans, FRS), a French
conservative Christian-democratic party. She also founded in
1993 the
anti-abortion NGO ''Alliance pour les droits de la vie'' (ADV)-- having demonstrated in 1995 against the celebration of the
Veil Act legalizing abortion twenty years earlier. The same year, she became a consultant for the
Pontifical Council for the Family headed by
Cardinal Lopez-Trujillo. 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. On one instance, Christine Boutin spoke for five hours in the National Assembly. She also waved a
Bible in the direction of the speaker of the Assembly-- a surprising gesture in a country where
state secularism is specified in the
Constitution.
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. She also advocates
guaranteed minimum income and expanded
housing rights (''Droit au logement'')
[1]. 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.
In a November 2006 interview, published in 2007, she stated that
George W. Bush might have been behind the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
[2][3]
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 [4]. 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.
[5] She has taken as advisors the
anti-abortion activist Christine de Chefdebien
[6], the priest Jean-Marie Petitclerc and the traditionalist Catholic
Jean-Paul Bolufer, formed by ''
La Cité Catholique'' group and close to the
Opus Dei [7].
Quotes
★ When asked if she believed that the Bush administration was behind the 9/11 attacks, she replied:
''« 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. »''
"I think that it's possible. 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.[8][9]
References
1. Law proposition on housing right, 28 September 2005
2. Bush behind 9/11, says French politician, ''Northern Territory News, July 7, 2007.
3. Video of interview by Karl Zéro
4. France 2 news, 2nd December 2006
5. Communiqué de la Présidence de la République concernant la composition du gouvernement de M. François FILLON, Premier ministre. , ''Élysée Palace, May 18, 2007.
6. ''L'Humanité'', COMMANDO ANTI-IVG : LE PROCUREUR DEMANDE 4 MOIS AVEC SURSIS", 4 September 1992
7. Christine Boutin nomme un directeur de cabinet formé par l'intégriste Cité catholique : Jean-Paul Bolufer
8. Christine Boutin rattrapée par ses propos controversés sur le 11-Septembre
9. In France, a senior pol dares to question the 9/11 tale
External links
★
Christine Boutin's official page at the French National Assembly
★
Official blog