The president of the union federation of single-parent families, guest of BFMTV this Wednesday, May 8, expressed reservations regarding Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to put in place a “duty to visit” for absent fathers. .
Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to consider the establishment of a “duty to visit” for fathers in single-parent families has raised questions within certain associations and among certain elected officials. The president of the union federation of single-parent families Josette Elombo, guest of BFMTV this Wednesday, May 8, notably expressed some reservations about this idea.
“I don’t like constraint. Anything relational cannot be constrained,” she first declared on our set. “So I don’t know how we can use the word duty. How do you want to force a defaulting parent when we already can’t get child support paid? A problem that has already not been resolved,” according to her.
“Thinking is not good”
A little earlier, Emmanuel Macron had declared in a video interview with Elle magazine that he wanted to think about the idea of replacing the “right of visitation” with a “duty of visitation” for fathers.
“The thinking in my opinion is not good,” continued Josette Elombo. “Everything you have to do is a problem.”
Indeed, the president of the trade union federation – which brings together around fifteen associations – has put her finger on an imperative: the risk of imposing a duty to visit families where there are unknown intra-family violence.
“Violence is not always visible, it is not always known… and therefore forcing a mother and her children to see the father can be dangerous,” she further defended.
“We cannot establish a duty of visitation in cases where the separations are conflictual”
If she considers that the child’s “balance” depends on the presence of “both parents”, Josette Elombo recognizes that “life stories” are often more complex than that. “We must focus on the reason why there are not both parents: if it is a consensus of the parents, there is no discomfort (…) but it is when there is a dispute that there is a problem,” she further elaborated.
“But we cannot establish a duty of visitation in cases where separations are conflictual, where there is mistreatment, violence, instrumentalization of the child, because this would put the family in danger,” also pointed out Véronique Obé, administrator to the federation.
Furthermore, the Trade Union Federation of Single-Parent Families noted the need to reform the law to “allow the parent who has sole custody to be able to exercise their parental authority without being penalized” in the procedures by the absence of the other parent but also that of “freeing up time for the mother” taking care of the children alone.
One in four families in France is single-parent (i.e. two million families and 3.1 million minor children) and is headed by a woman in 82% of cases, recalled a recent senatorial report.
Jeanne Bulant Journalist BFMTV
