A poll has found that three-quarters of people in France want to keep the country’s same-sex marriage laws, despite opposition calls to repeal it.

France legalised same-sex marriage in April 2013 in spite of large protests, and in May last year Bruno Boileau and Vincent Autin became the first same-sex couple to marry.

However, protests among the country’s Catholic population have persisted long after the passage of the law, with many calling for it to be repealed if Socialist President Francois Hollande is defeated in 2017 and the centre-right UMP returns to power.

However, a poll today may crush the hopes of those wishing to block same-sex marriage – as a majority of UMP members now support keeping the law, as well as an overwhelming majority of the French public.

56 percent of UMP voters now support keeping the law in place, despite many being fiercely opposed before the law was implemented, with just 44 percent wanting it repealed.

Across the public, at large, 73 percent now want the law to remain in place, with just 26 percent opposed and 1 percent unsure.

Over 7000 same-sex couples married in France last year, with Paris alone recently celebrating its 2000th marriage – meaning any attempt to repeal the law would likely be a bureaucratic nightmare.

Tens of thousands of people attended homophobic rallies in Paris and Lyon in February, with similar protests still continuing.