Deputies’ dismay over election result

Date: 25/04/02

By Martin Banks

MEPS from across the political divide have expressed dismay at the strong showing of Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential election.

The leader of France's extreme-right National Front, won enough votes to go head-to-head with Gaullist Jacques Chirac in the run-off on 5 May. Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was forced out the contest after coming third in Sunday's vote.

Le Pen polled 16.86 of the vote, increasing his share from 15 in the 1995 election. Chirac, now virtually assured of victory in the second round, polled 19.88 - the lowest score of an incumbent head of state under the Fifth Republic.

That will not trouble 73-year-old former paratrooper Le Pen, who is basking in the limelight. Always a controversial figure, he entered the European Parliament in 1984 and has been a regular attender ever since. However, his extreme views have not made him popular with other members.

Germany's Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the 233-strong centre-right European People's Party, said: 'I am sure all democracies in Europe will be hoping Chirac is successful.'

Spaniard Enrique Barón, leader of the Parliament's Socialists, said he was 'very disappointed', adding: 'The rise of the extreme right is, unfortunately, a European phenomenon which calls for a deep and urgent reflection.'

French socialist Pervenche Berès described Sunday's vote as a 'tremendous shock', adding: 'I feel sorry for Jospin, who has been a good prime minister, reducing unemployment and helping to create a good economy.'

Her colleague Harlem Désir, however, said the result highlighted the need for left-wing parties to address 'working class' issues. Le Pen's success was branded a 'disaster' by independent Olivier Dupuis, who said: 'The Left tried to compete with the Right on the issue of security but failed.'

Guido Podestà, a Parliamentary vice-president, said: 'It is clear in France the Left has lost is traditional reforming role and that the Left in Europe is in a period of crisis that robs it of all credibility. The high level of abstentions [28.4, the lowest turnout in a French presidential election since 1958] also shows the clear gulf between citizens and politics.'

Simon Murphy, leader of British Labour MEPs said the result would 'send a shock wave down the backbone of European politics. Across Europe, the far right is fast becoming a cancer in our political system'.

Liberal Sarah Ludford said Le Pen's success showed 'the need to counter the anti-immigrant sentiments that are attracting too high a proportion of voters across Europe'.

Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock, meanwhile, said European leaders would react 'with shock and horror' at the result.

Le Pen, a member of the European Parliament's petitions and regional policy committees, was suspended from the assembly after physically attacking Annette Peulvast-Bergeal, a Socialist candidate in the 1997 French general election.

He received a three-year suspended sentence but was re-instated as an MEP 12 months ago after his appeal against suspension was upheld by the European Court of Justice.

Bizarre incidents have been Le Pen's stock-in-trade ever since he became the youngest member of France's national assembly, aged 27, in 1956 - 11 years before Chirac first held elected office.

This is Le Pen's fourth bid for the presidency. In his first, in 1974, he polled just 0.74 of the vote.

After setting up the National Front in 1972, he was fined for recording Nazi war songs. In his most notorious remark, he once referred to the Nazi death camps as a 'detail of history'.

At various times he has worn an eye-patch, claiming to have lost the use of his left eye during a political punch-up; his former wife Pierrette has insisted that the real reason he wore the patch was because he'd had a cataract operation. After leaving Le Pen, she put his private life into the spotlight, claiming she was bullied and treated like a maid.

None of this is likely to put the MEP off his stride as he relishes his guaranteed TV exposure in the run-up to the decisive vote on Sunday, 5 May. His breakthrough in the presidential election will also raise his supporters' hopes of winning National Front seats in the French parliamentary elections on 9 and 16 June .

Le Pen has indicated he will not stand for re-election to the European Parliament in 2004, irrespective of how he performs against Chirac.

• Germany's centre-left Chancellor Gerhard Schröder suffered a humiliating defeat at the weekend in elections in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, the last major test of voter opinion before this September's general election.

Report of the reaction of MEPs to the result of the first round of voting in the French presidential election.