Society has become too “accommodated to the idea that women could take on everything on their own and that it was not a big deal,” criticized the minister.
Emmanuel Macron’s exit provokes reactions. The President of the Republic’s proposal to consider a “duty to visit” a father, in cases where the mother takes care of the children alone after a separation, “is not a reactive debate” but “necessary” , judged this Thursday, May 9, the minister responsible for gender equality, Aurore Bergé.
In an interview on Wednesday with Elle magazine, the President of the Republic said he wanted to open a debate on the establishment of a “duty to support, until adulthood, children”, which would allow single mothers ” to demand” the involvement and regular visits of their ex-spouses.
“No forcing a relationship”
“Obviously, the question is not to force a relationship when there is a risk of violence,” reassured Aurore Bergé, Minister Delegate in charge of Equality between Women and Men and the Fight against Discrimination. , this Thursday, May 9 on Cnews and Europe 1.
“I think that this is not a reactionary debate, (but) a useful debate, a necessary debate” on “responsibility, on the role of parents”, she maintained.
Society has become too “accommodated to the idea that women could take on everything on their own and that it was not a big deal” if fathers “limited themselves to alimony which, sometimes, they did not pay.” according to the minister. The single-parent nature of these families is often “suffered”, she stressed.
She gave the example of separated women whose ex-partner “calls on Friday evening” to say that “this weekend, finally, he will not take the children”. In these cases, “nothing happens, there is no reminder of the father’s responsibility” nor “sanctions”, and “it is the mother who must take responsibility for everything”, regretted the minister.
Conversely, mothers who “refuse the presentation of a child because there will be a risk of violence, on the other hand, are immediately reminded of the law,” she observed, denouncing a “ imbalance of responsibility. This “duty of visitation” could materialize in various ways, she said, such as “sanctions for fathers who should already assume their right of visitation and do not assume it”.
Questions from associations
This proposal has raised questions among associations, concerned that these compulsory visits are not always in the interests of families, particularly in the event of conflictual separations or intra-family violence.
“Duty to visit = dangerous idea: a violent, abusive, failing man is not a good father. The right objective: the best interests of the child. With or without a father,” wrote the Osez association on X feminism.
Invited Wednesday evening on the BFMTV set, Josette Elombo, president of the union federation of single-parent families, also expressed her doubts. “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.
