France’s lower house of parliament passed a law on April 23 allowing homosexuals to “marry.” The law carried 331 votes, with 225 dissenting. It is expected to be approved by the Constitutional Court and French President François Hollande over the next few months.

France, it seems, has joined the new trend of so-called liberalism that is sweeping the world.

However, France is not what it seems. The opposition to homosexual “marriage” has been stronger in this country than perhaps anywhere else in the world where similar laws have been introduced.

The director of studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris, John Laughland, explained the situation in an article titled “Why France’s Gay Marriage Debate Has Started to Look Like a Revolution,” in the latest issue of the Spectator.

“Revolutions are often sparked by an unexpected shock to an already weakened regime,” he writes. “As commentators in France remark not only on the crisis engulfing François Hollande’s government but also on the apparent death-rattle of the country’s entire political system, it could be that his flagship policy of legalizing gay marriage—or rather, the gigantic public reaction against it, unique in Europe—will be the last straw that breaks the Fifth Republic’s back.”

While Mr. Laughland may be on to something, his article needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Laughland’s Institute of Democracy and Cooperation is funded by Russian non-governmental organizations and seems to be part of Russia’s push back against Western criticism of its human rights record. Even Russian media has referred to the institute as a “pro-Kremlin think tank.” By saying the West is ignoring and mistreating its own protesters, Russia helps get itself off the hook.

With that caveat: “Opposition to the bill has electrified the middle classes, the young and much of provincial France,” Laughland writes. “On Sunday, 24 March, in the freezing cold, the 4-kilometer stretch from the Arche de la Défense to the Arc de Triomphe was full of people protesting against the bill. On 13 January, also chilly, the Champ de Mars was similarly crammed. When Johnny Hallyday or the World Cup got crowds like that, people talked of 2 million. But the police, evidently acting under political orders, have claimed that both demonstrations—which are without doubt the largest public movements in French history—garnered a few hundred thousand at most. Credible accusations surfaced in Le Figaro on Monday night that the film taken from police helicopters on 24 March and released by the Prefecture has been manipulated to reduce the apparent numbers of demonstrators.”

Even if the conservative police figures are considered, these are among the biggest protests France has seen in a generation. You have to go back to France’s failed attempts to reform its mostly Catholic private schools in 1984 to find a protest substantially larger. Since then, the only protest bigger than the recent ones was on May 1, 2002, when hundreds of thousands turned out to demonstrate against Jean-Marie Le Pen’s presidential bid.

A hugely unpopular government is legalizing homosexual “marriage” against the wishes of close to half of the population. A recent poll found that while 52 percent supported homosexual “marriage,” 52 percent also opposed allowing homosexual couples to adopt—something included in this law.

Just like in much of southern Europe, the target of public anger is the whole political system, not just a single party or figure. Last year, the National Front’s Marine Le Pen—a political outsider—won a record 18 percent of the vote.

French President François Hollande’s popularity rating is around 27 percent—the lowest of any French president. But where can the French turn? There is no popular figure on the right and to many, Le Pen and the National Front are beyond the pale.

There is a hole at the heart of French politics. But it is a Roman Catholic-shaped hole. Under a scandal-ridden government, the nation cries out for an honest, reputable and pro-family leadership—which the Catholic Church claims to embody.

“The protests have re-awoken old demons—church versus republic; ‘real’ France versus ‘anti-France’—which weakened the country in the 1890s and the 1930s,” wrote the Independent’s man in Paris John Lichfield.

The protests have brought out a new breed of political activists—those who don’t usually take to the streets. Lichfield writes that traditional Catholics have joined with the hard right in taking to the street. “The crossover between hard-right activists and Catho-traditionalist kids fits a pattern which has worried politicians of both right and left in recent weeks,” he continues. “The mass gay marriage protests have eroded the increasingly flimsy barriers between the ‘traditional’ and the ‘hard’ right in France; between the National Front and the center right.” The Catholic Church has been at the heart of these demonstrations. It obviously still holds a lot of sway.

France is not following in the same trend as Britain and America, rejecting traditional morality and religion with hardly a fight. Rather, this could be the moment that France changes direction and starts a new trend, perhaps rapidly and suddenly.

Despite being a strongly Catholic country, religion has been kept firmly out of France’s government. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy took some unprecedented steps away from the separation of church and state. But the separation remains.

The legalization of homosexual “marriage” could make the French realize they no longer want this separation. Rather than being another step against religion, the homosexual “marriage” law could be the trigger that brings religion back to the heart of French government.

Across southern Europe, the very method of government, not just the governments themselves, is very unpopular. In Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and now France, this unpopularity is reaching unprecedented levels. This public pressure will soon push Europe to adopt a radical change in government. Watch for this change, and watch for the Catholic Church to be part of it.

“Had the mobilization in Paris taken place in Tahrir Square, the world’s media would be unanimous that a ‘French Spring’ was about to sweep away an outdated power structure, especially since the demonstrations … are attended by an overwhelming number of people in their late teens and early 20s,” writes Laughland. He may be right. Perhaps this is the start of a Catholic Spring in Europe.