France split over François Hollande's divisive gay marriage bill The CRS riot, will be in full battle gear in Paris today (SUN) ahead of what organisers hope will be a demonstration that could attract more than a million people. Today's "Demo for All" is the last rallying cry from an anti-gay marriage movement whose scale has taken France by surprise before the bill is put to a final vote in parliament on Tuesday, where the ruling Socialist party's large majority will almost certainly get it passed. Despite that comfortable majority, the final furlong has been increasingly fraught both inside and outside parliament, particularly since the government halved the debating time of its second hearing to rush the bill through. Protests have taken place every day in Paris and other cities in the past few days, with scores of arrests. The furore makes the row over similar measures in Britain look relatively minor. In a string of guerrilla actions, activists opposed to the bill have staged dawn protests outside ministers" homes, vandalised cars, assaulted journalists and even blocked a fast train carrying a prominent gay marriage campaigner. One Socialist MP received death threats, and there are reports that two attacks on gay bars, one in Bordeaux and one in Lille, were linked to rising anti-gay sentiment fuelled by the protests. So why the explosive outrage in the land of liberty, fraternity and equality? Demonstrators protest at the Invalide square in Paris (AP) Some argue that its simply part of a wider backlash against what is seen as a corrupt, incompetent political class, sparked by President Hollande's inability to tackle unemployment and the recent discovery that the government's tax tsar had a secret Swiss bank account. But the French Right has seized on the gay marriage issue to rally its demoralised electorate. Given the mess that Mr Hollande's Socialist administration is already making of the economy, right wingers argue, the Left has no right to legislate on moral issues as well. "The French are very attached to family," Hervé Mariton, a spokesman on the gay marriage issue for the right-wing UMP party, told The Sunday Telegraph. The government has totally underestimated the importance of this issue to the French and was very high-minded in its approach. He insisted that the vast majority of demonstrations had been "joyful and peaceful," with many young people finding their political conscience - first time protesters who could become the "modern Right of tomorrow." Some on the centre-Right are calling it their "1968 in reverse." Mr Mariton has joined forces with the "Demo for All" movement, whose figurehead is a peroxide blonde comedienne-turned-activist calling herself Frijide Barjot - a play on one words that sounds like Brigitte Bardot but means "frigid nutter." Branding the Socialist president a dictator, she said last week: "Hollande wants blood and he'll get it." Barjot also has the support of the Catholic Church, which has swung its considerable organisational clout behind her movement. Despite Church and UMP support, Barjot's position as anti-gay marriage standard bearer is being challenged by a far more radical breakaway group calling itself French Spring, which has the backing of hardline Catholic fundamentalist groups and the extreme Right. Its enigmatic leader, Béatrice Bourges, has dismissed rival Barjot as a wet "teddy bear," and has refused to condemn more radical, violent action. French Spring, Bourges wrote in Le Monde, is an "avant-garde" movement and a "cry of the masses against an arrogant denial of democracy ." Her supporters are masters of flash mob-style protests organised on Facebook and Twitter. Although its opponents have shown their ability to stage protests drawing hundreds of thousands of people like those expected today, defenders of the bill are quietly confident the anti-gay marriage furore will die down once it is voted into law on Tuesday. "I think we will quickly move onto something else," said Christophe Girard, the gay Socialist mayor of Paris" 4th arrondissement, who has announced he intends to wed his boyfriend once the law is passed. The demand for gay marriage and adoption is the same for almost all advanced democracies. We are no different from the British, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, Canadians or some US states. People can express their opposition that's not problem; I organised ten debates in my town hall, but after that parliament decides, not the street or a handful of groups. With concern rising over the unrest, Mr Hollande swiftly condemned "homophobia and violent acts." "I ask people to respect parliament, the law, and universal suffrage," he said referring to the fact that the bill was an electoral promise. In France, as in Britain, numerous public figures are open about their homosexuality, from Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë to TV chat show star Laurent Ruquier. Despite this, Paul Parant, a journalist at gay weekly Têtu and author of a book called Dare Gay Marriage, out next month, said attitudes are different in France. France is a fundamentally conservative country. I wouldn't say homophobic, but it has a tradition of greater respect of private life compared to your country. There's still a sense that it's indecent for gay public figures to come out and many are still in the closet. I think this gay marriage bill will help change that. Polls suggest the French, with their strong Catholic tradition, are more reticent about gay marriage and adoption than most other European nations, particularly when it comes to adoption. In June 2011, some 63 per cent of the French were in favour of same-sex marriage, while 58 per cent supported adoption rights for same-sex couples, according to pollsters Ifop. Latest polls as of Friday suggest that the protest movement has helped turn public opinion against the bill, with 53 per cent now opposing it. As for the claim the anti-gay movement will collapse as of next Tuesday, its opponents insist the fight will go - starting by an appeal to the constitutional council then a mega-march on May 26. Jacques Myard, an UMP MP, said: "The vast majority of French have understood that there remains only one response: the inalienable right to resist by taking to the street."