MPs vote ban on paying for sex

PAYING for sex is expected to become illegal, after MPs voted through the proposal as part of a new prostitution law.

The measure was the most controversial part of the law, which will be subject to an overall vote on Wednesday, before it goes to the Senate.

It will reverse current French law, which makes prostitutes soliciting for trade illegal but does not penalise their clients. The law on soliciting was toughened in 2003, to include even “passive” forms, such as standing on the street in a suggestive posture and clothes.

Women’s Rights Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the passing of the measure, by a show of hands, “honours our democracy”.

The law creates a €1,500 fine for paying for sex, doubled in the case of a repeat offence, as well as the possibility of offenders paying for a course on sensitivity to the problems involved in prostitution, either instead of or as well as the fine.

It also includes measures aimed at helping people leave prostitution.

Green party EELV were the main opponents to the law, MP Sergio Coronado stating in the debate that the proponents are “incapable of imagining there can be consent in paid-for sex” and that they “contrast women, always victims, and men, always guilty”.

The government believes around 80-90% of prostitutes are immigrants forced into prostitution by criminals, figures contested by prostitutes’ representatives Strass.

France has partly taken inspiration from Sweden, where paying prostitutes was banned.

Pimping or running a brothel are already illegal in France.

Photo: Fred/ www.fotolia.com

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