

Fringe groups have attacked France’s marriage equality law since it was enacted last spring. But now former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is dipping into the issue, saying yesterday that the law should be repealed.

At a debate sponsored by the right-wing group Common Sense on Saturday, he declared the law needs to be “rewritten from the ground up.” After shouts of “Repeal! Repeal!” from the crowd, he added, “If you prefer that I say repeal the law… it comes down to the same thing.”

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Sarkozy is currently vying for the nomination for president from the center-right UMP party, which will have its primary in two weeks, well before the 2017 general elections.

He has previously supported recognition of same-sex relationships, but not on equal footing as heterosexual marriage. He is also against adoption and surrogate parenthood for gay couples. Current Socialist President Francois Hollande made marriage equality a key plank in his campaign.

Sarkozy is not exactly on solid ground when it comes to marriage: He’s been married three times, most recently to model-singer Carla Bruni, whom he started dating less than a month after divorcing Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz in 2007.

A recent polls shows 68% of the French support same-sex marriage.