A French man has launched an extraordinary hunger strike after handcuffing himself to a barrier outside a municipal social services center, saying bureaucracy is preventing him from marrying the woman he has loved for more than a decade.
Marc Alexandre, 48, began his protest on October 6 in Fleurance, in France’s Gers department, according to La Dépêche du Midi. He says his goal is simple: to obtain the legal right to marry his partner, Marie Ange.
The former soldier says the couple have been together for more than 10 years. He wants the marriage partly to protect his partner financially if he dies, including allowing her to potentially benefit from his military survivor pension.
The problem is an unusual administrative contradiction.
Alexandre says he divorced his former wife 18 years ago and has a 2008 court judgment confirming that the marriage was dissolved. A certificate from the Nancy Court of Appeal also indicates that the decision was not appealed.
However, his official civil status record still lists him as married because the divorce was apparently never added to the document.
Fleurance Mayor Grégory Bobbato told La Dépêche that the municipality cannot proceed with a new marriage while the required divorce notation is missing from the civil record. Once the documentation is corrected, the municipality says the marriage process can resume.
After weeks of waiting, Alexandre decided on a more dramatic form of protest. He attached himself to a barrier and began refusing food.
He insists the hunger strike is peaceful and says he has already provided documents proving that a judge legally ended his previous marriage.
His partner, 56 year old Marie Ange, supports the marriage. She told the newspaper that she has lost her only son and fears being left alone if something happens to Alexandre.
The unusual dispute has quickly attracted attention in France, with searches for “grève de la faim,” or “hunger strike,” surging on Wednesday.
For Alexandre, however, the protest is not about publicity. He says he intends to continue fighting until the administrative obstacle is resolved and the couple can finally marry.
