French Legislator Assailed for Anti-Gay Remarks President Nicolas Sarkozy's party says it is kicking out a legislator who downplayed the persecution of gays during World War II and suggested homosexuals hold too much sway in France. The head of Sarkozy's conservative party UMP, Jean-Francois Cope, said Wednesday that lawmaker Christian Vanneste would be expelled because of his "deeply shocking and intolerable comments." Cope says the party will finalize the decision at a meeting next week. In a video broadcast on a French website, Vanneste said gays are "at the heart of power" in France and referred to "the legend of the deportation of homosexuals" during the war. Historians estimate that thousands of gay men were sent to Nazi concentration camps. The remarks drew an outpouring of criticism from France's left and right.