Nicolas Sarkozy Wants to Reverse Marriage Equality in France

As part of a comeback bid, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will push for reversing the country's legalization of same-sex marriage.

The law, passed last year by Socialist president Francois Hollande who had beaten Sarkozy in 2012, has been vigorously opposed by the country's strong Catholic contingent, and Sarkozy is tapping into antigay sentiment to help propel a bid to lead the conservative UMP party. If successful, Sarkozy is expected to become a 2017 contender for president.

Sarkozy, who has been married three times, opposes legalizing surrogacy in France -- where it's now being debated -- and so he said that requires also opposing the marriage equality bill that also legalized same-sex parents adopting children. In the past, Sarkozy has supported civil unions and is reported to having said, as he did again on Saturday, that the law "should be rewritten from the ground up" but he went further when the crowd egged him on.

"It has to be rewritten from the ground up," he said, according to a translation by France24. "This is not a choice."

Then the audience chanted "Repeal! Repeal!" and Sarkozy agreed.

"OK, if you are saying we should repeal it and pass a new law, it comes down to the same thing, and it achieves the same result."

His comments follow huge antigay rallies held across the country in October.