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Society

France Divided: Huge Rally Against Gay Marriage, While Lesbian Film Wins Cannes

LA CROIX(France), LE PARISIEN(France),AFP

Worldcrunch

PARIS - Some 350 people were arrested over the weekend in Paris, during protests against gay marriage. Meanwhile in the south of France, the Cannes Film Festival celebrated gay romance, awarding the top Palme d’Or prize to a love story about a lesbian couple.

Despite the law being officially enacted last week, the dispute over same-sex marriage is still shaking France. Police estimated that up to 150,000 joined marches on Sunday to demand the withdrawal of the law. Organizers claimed they were closer to one million.

After the rally, clashes erupted between far-right groups and the police. French authorities said they had made a total of 293 arrests and that six people were injured in the course of Sunday's demonstration: four police officers, an Agence-France Press (AFP) photographer and a protester, the AFP reports. A total of 350 arrests were made over the weekend.

#PHOTO: Riot policemen arrest a far-right protester in Paris on the sidelines of demos against gay marriage law twitter.com/AFP/status/338…

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 26 mai 2013

#PHOTO: #AFP photographer beaten up by far-right protesters during demo against gay marriage law. #manifpourtoustwitter.com/sarnaudAFP/sta…

— AFP Photo Department (@AFPphoto) 27 mai 2013

"These incidents were provoked by several hundred individuals, most from the extreme right and the (nationalist) Identity Bloc, who violently attacked police," said Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

The first gay wedding will be celebrated this week and Valls ensured that “no disturbance from far-right groups would be accepted”, Le Parisien reports.

This country's strong divide over the issue of same-sex marriage was also on display at the world's premiere film festival. The Cannes jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, awarded its highest prize to a gay-themed film. “Blue is the Warmest Color,” by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, celebrates a love story between two young women.

#PHOTO: "Blue is the Warmest Colour" scooped the top Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. #Cannes2013twitter.com/AFPphoto/statu…

— AFP Photo Department (@AFPphoto) 26 mai 2013

Accepting the prize, Kechiche said: "I should like to dedicate this film to the wonderful youth of France whom I met during the long period while making this film. Those young people taught me a lot about the spirit of freedom and living together,” La Croix reports.

France is now the ninth country in Europe, and 14th in the world, to legalise gay marriage.

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Geopolitics

Why The Latin American Far Left Can't Stop Cozying Up To Iran's Regime

Among the Islamic Republic of Iran's very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America's left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.

Image of Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, Romina Pérez Ramos.

Bolivia's embassy in Tehran/Facebook
Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Latin American Left has an incurable anti-Yankee fever. It is a sickness seen in the baffling support given by the socialist regimes of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela or Bolivia to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which to many exemplifies clerical fascism. And all for a single, crass reason: together they hate the United States.

The Islamic Republic has so many of the traits the Left used to hate and fight in the 20th century: a religious (Islamic) vocation, medieval obscurantism, misogyny... Its kleptocratic economy has turned bog-standard class divisions into chasmic inequalities reminiscent of colonial times.

This support is, of course, cynical and in line with the mandates of realpolitik. The regional master in this regard is communist Cuba, which has peddled its anti-imperialist discourse for 60 years, even as it awaits another chance at détente with its ever wealthy neighbor.

I reflected on this on the back of recent remarks by Bolivia's ambassador in Tehran, the 64-year-old Romina Pérez Ramos. She must be the busiest diplomat in Tehran right now, and not a day goes by without her going, appearing or speaking somewhere, with all the publicity she can expect from the regime's media.

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