Paris (AFP)

The Paris Council voted on Wednesday for a place Claude-Goasguen, former minister, deputy and LR mayor of the 16th arrondissement who died in 2020, after a heated exchange between the LR and EELV groups resulting in a suspension of the meeting and a public ballot.

The deliberation was adopted by 82 votes in favor, including that of the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo and his deputy Patrick Bloche who chaired the meeting, 34 against and 2 abstentions.

The future Place Claude-Goasguen is located in the La Muette district, in the heart of the 16th arrondissement, of which he was mayor from 2008 to 2017.

On behalf of the EELV group, the elected Alice Coffin opposed such a tribute "because of multiple behaviors and statements relating to racism, sexism, homophobia, classism".

Councilor LR Francis Szpiner then accused the feminist and LGBT rights activist of "spitting on the memory of Claude Goasguen" and quoted the poet René Char: "there is a kind of man who is always ahead of their excrement".

Fatoumata Koné, president of the EELV group, accused Mr. Szpiner of being "insulting", asking for an apology as well as a public ballot and an interruption of the session.

"I persist and sign," replied Mr. Szpiner.

"It is you who are insulting", replied Aurélie Pirillo, elected LR who had previously praised Claude Goasguen, "a man of value", "very open-minded" but who "like any man of convictions , could be divisive ".

The PCF deputy in memory, Laurence Patrice, supported the tribute to "an elected Republican, where he was mayor", and stressed that this name "had not been discussed" during its passage in committee.

Figure of the Parisian right, Claude Goasguen died of cardiac arrest at the end of May 2020, at the age of 75, while recovering from the coronavirus.

President Emmanuel Macron hailed "a great political voice that will be missing from the Republican debate".

But for his detractors, Claude Goasguen was in his youth a supporter of French Algeria and leader of the Corpo d'Assas, a student union close to the West, as well as an opponent of the Pacs and marriage for all.

"We already live in a society where equal rights are far from being effective in addition to honoring the memory of a sinister character who has distinguished himself by his homophobia, his racism and his filthy sexism", notably protested on Twitter Aurélien Beaucamp, president of the Aides association.

© 2021 AFP