Gabrielle and Joseph Susanj offered Stéphane Boltz, and no later than February 6 in Clouange, to be one of the few mayors in France to have had the right to proceed to a forbidden marriage. The family relationship between the lovebirds, aged 68 and 81 respectively, is one of the impediments to marriage provided for by the legislator. Union is prohibited “between the uncle and the niece or the nephew, and between the aunt and the nephew or the niece”, specifies article 163 of the Civil Code. And Joseph is precisely the brother of Gabrielle’s mother. But now, “she got into my car once and she never came back down”, jokes the young octogenarian groom. “I wanted to regularize the situation, because I have lived with my niece since 2001” and to protect her financially, Joseph explains in a more serious tone. And then “it was causing a bit much”. He has been widowed since 1999, she has been divorced since 1981 and their relationship has never been called into question by the family. Only however strong their feelings, a legal Himalayas inhibits any aspiration to live them legally in a context of prohibitions.
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A first request to the Elysée
As high as it is, the mountain is not insurmountable and Joseph and Gabrielle used the pass for the first time, in 2002, the pass which could lead them in front of the mayor by addressing the Élysée. Why ? Because according to article 164 of the same Civil Code which poses the obstacles, it is “open to the President of the Republic” to remove them under certain conditions. At the time, the palace at n ° 55 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré was occupied by Jacques Chirac and he refused. “Perhaps out of fear of offspring,” Joseph analyzes.
Never mind, the couple does not change anything in their daily life, reiterates their request in 2018 and addresses them to the Chancellery. As it was heard by the gendarmerie in 2002, it is this time by the police “to know the reasons” and forward them to the judicial court of Thionville. The request progresses quietly, carrying the deep, serious and lasting character of the bond between the lovers, until the day when a letter with acknowledgment of receipt arrives to them. At the bottom of the letter, Joseph remembers reading the signature “of the lawyer turned minister”. Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, who confirms that a decree taken on November 5, 2020 by Emmanuel Macron, authorizes them to get married. “We could not publish the banns without the agreement of the Élysée”, says Stéphane Boltz who not only posted them, but also received the “yes” of Joseph and Gabrielle.
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