Outrage in France as Macron appoints senator who fought gay marriage to key rights job
French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed right-wing senator François-Noël Buffet as the new Defender of Rights, sparking outrage over his past opposition to same-sex marriage and other rights.
France has a new human rights ombudsman – tasked with defending certain rights that he previously fought in parliament. Lawmakers in the lower house National Assembly and the Senate on Tuesday narrowly backed right-wing Senator François-Noël Buffet to become France’s new Defender of Rights, approving President Emmanuel Macron’s nominee by 43 votes to 39. The 62-year-old lawyer by training replaces former journalist Claire Hédon, a frequent critic of racial discrimination and police brutality, whose six-year term expired on Monday.
A human rights watchdog acting independently of government, the Défenseur des droits is responsible for defending citizens whose rights are infringed and ensuring the equal protection of legal rights in France. Critics say such duties are incompatible with the political views of a politician with a track record of opposing equal rights for some of France’s most vulnerable communities.
Buffet, a senator from the Rhône department around Lyon, notably campaigned against extending marriage rights to same-sex couples and more recently opposed legislation allowing medically assisted reproduction for single women and lesbian couples. His appointment as defender of such rights is “both absurd and scary”, said Nicolas Faget, a spokesperson for the Association of Gay and Lesbian Parents and Future Parents (AGPL). “One of the bulwarks shielding same-sex parents and their children from discrimination is at risk of being undermined by someone who does not believe in those rights,” he said. “It’s frankly alarming.”
Buffet is a close ally of hardline former interior minister Bruno Retailleau, a candidate in next year’s presidential election for the conservative Les Républicains party. He served as minister for overseas territories in the short-lived Michel Barnier government in 2024 and then worked with Retailleau at the interior ministry under former PM François Bayrou. Described by critics as an archconservative, Buffet took part in protests against same-sex marriage in 2013 and voted against extending medically assisted reproduction to single women and female couples in 2021. He also abstained during a landmark 2024 vote on enshrining the right to abortion in the French constitution. The senator favours cutting back on state-funded medical care for undocumented migrants.
During a tense hearing before the National Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee last week, Buffet faced accusations of a history of “racist and homophobic votes”. He responded by stating that he had “evolved” on “a number of issues” and promised “total independence”. When grilled about his opposition to a bill legalising same-sex marriage in 2013, he said: “I did something stupid; I had my doubts about the consequences, but not about the principle itself.” However, in 2014 he was one of several candidates in local elections to sign a charter vowing to “preserve the father-mother-child family unit”.
Critics of the appointment have linked it to political horse-trading at a time when Macron is seeking to obtain plum jobs for his close allies before leaving the Elysée Palace next year. Faget said it followed the president's pattern of appointing conservative politicians to key posts. While the rights ombudsman has neither judicial nor legislative powers, their word carries considerable weight both in courtrooms and in citizens’ disputes with public authorities. The Inter-LGBT advocacy group described the choice of Buffet as “yet further evidence of the Élysée’s contempt for LGBTQIA+ people”.
