LONDON Euro-MP Jean Lambert has demanded an explanation from French embassy officials after the Mayor of Begles in South-Western France was suspended for conducting the country's first gay wedding.
Green Party Mayor Noel Mamere was suspended from duties by French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin this week after he conducted a civil marriage between Stephane Chapin and Bertrand Charpentier.
Mrs Lambert, the capital's Green Party MEP - who was re-elected this week with an increased share of the vote - demanded Noel Mamere be reinstated immediately and praised his decision to conduct the ceremony as a brave step towards ending discrimination.
"M Mamere's actions should be praised as progressive step towards stamping out homophobic discrimination - not condemned," said Mrs Lambert, a member of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee.
"The decision to suspend him from office is itself an attack on democracy and the French LGBT community."
Mrs Lambert has written a letter of support to M Mamere, himself a former Green Party MEP, and raised the matter both with French Embassy officials in London and the European Parliament's cross-party group on LGBT issues, of which she is a member.
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