French immigration minister postpones wedding to avoid Facebook protest

Éric Besson changes wedding plans after threat to 'create havoc' at ceremony in retaliation for crackdown on Roma travellers

France's immigration minister, Éric Besson, has postponed his wedding after Facebook protesters vowed to disrupt the ceremony.

The former socialist, who defected to President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling right-of-centre UMP party, has been criticised over the government's expulsion of nearly a thousand Roma travellers. He is also at the centre of a storm over plans to strip certain foreign-born criminals of their French nationality.

Besson, 52, a divorced father-of-three, had planned to marry Tunisian-born art student Yasmine Tordjman, 24, at the town hall in the chic 7th arrondissement of Paris – where former justice minister Rachida Dati is mayor – on 16 September.

But by today, 1,067 Facebook users had signed up to the group Create Havoc at Éric Besson's Marriage.

Besson told France 5 television: "There should be a Chinese wall between public matters and private matters and this wall is being breached."

He added that he did not want his children, his new wife or his ex-wife to be "collateral damage for my political choices".

He also told AFP: "I've decided to change the date and place of this wedding so it will go back to being what it should never have stopped being, an exclusively private matter.

"I'm not afraid of it turning rowdy or havoc being created but I don't see why public funds should be spent on guaranteeing the security of a marriage that is in the private domain.

"I am not going to live as I have for the last few weeks under the watch of the paparazzi or celebrity journalists carrying out investigations into my private life and my partner's personality."

Besson denied that Sarkozy had planned to attend the wedding, saying the president would be in Brussels on 16 September.

"As far as the other guests are concerned, 'celebrities' or unknown people, they are first and foremost friends. The ceremony will be serious and totally private, without journalists or unofficial photographers."