Far-Right Historian Commits Suicide In Notre Dame Cathedral
By
Eleanor Beardsley |
NPR
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or
Flash plugin.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Dominique Venner, a well-known French historian who embraced and wrote about ultra-conservative causes for decades, committed suicide today in front of the alter at Notre Dame Cathedral. He had left a post on his blog decrying the legalization of same sex marriage in France. "An infamous law ... can always be repealed," he wrote. "It will require new, spectacular and symbolic actions to rouse people from their complacency."
Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block.
There was a dramatic scene today at Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral. A far-right historian and activist shot himself to death after calling for action to - in his words - protect France's identity. He was 78-year-old Dominique Venner. And as NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports, he was vehemently opposed to France's new law authorizing gay marriage and adoption.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: The suicide stunned Paris. Police were forced to evacuate about 1,500 people from Notre Dame Cathedral for several hours. Witnesses said Venner put a letter on the altar, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head. While neither the motive for his suicide nor the contents of his letter are yet known, Venner, a well-known opponent of the country's new gay marriage law, had blogged that dramatic action was needed to protect French identity.
Venner said, quote, "France needs spectacular, symbolic gestures to shake off the complacency and reawaken the memories of our origins." Far-right specialist Jean-Yves Camus says same-sex marriage and adoption, which became law on Sunday, has put wind in the sails of the far right.
JEAN-YVES CAMUS: (Through translator) What's going on in France is that this law has unleashed a wave of protests. It's not just the far right but also conservatives who are protesting these moral changes in society. But the whole movement is radicalizing.
BEARDSLEY: Camus says the mainstream right joined the protest movement as a way to denounce all of socialist President Francois Hollande's policies. But now it's become swept up in its virulence. The world was surprised at the strength of the opposition to gay marriage in France, as the country's conservative Catholic heartland asserted itself.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in foreign language)
BEARDSLEY: The debate began peacefully. These girls sing about a child's right to a mama and a papa in a demonstration last year that brought out tens of thousands of families with children. But what Hollande considered an easy campaign promise to keep divided the country horribly over the last year and has become nasty. There is a rise in homophobic assaults, and the latest demonstrations have descended into violence as protesters fought police, who responded with tear gas.
Hollande has appealed to opponents to accept the law, but they say they will never back down. France is bracing for what are expected to be massive demonstrations against the new gay marriage law on Sunday. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
View this story on npr.org
Follow us for more stories like this
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
Donate Today