|
French mass march against lepen { April 25 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47641-2002Apr25.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47641-2002Apr25.html
French Masses March Against Le Pen
By Jocelyn Gecker
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, April 25, 2002; 12:29 PM
PARIS –– About 100,000 students marched Thursday to show their opposition to extreme-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, as artists joined anti-racism groups and political parties in calls for bigger protests across the nation.
In many French universities, Thursday was declared a day without classes so students could debate the political situation.
Tens of thousands of protesters have filled the streets of France every day since Sunday's first-round presidential vote, when Le Pen qualified to face conservative President Jacques Chirac in the May 5 run-off.
French media estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 young people marched Thursday in cities like Nantes and Brest in the west, Lyon in central France, and Toulouse and Aix-en-Provence in southern France.
As the protests swelled, Le Pen complained he was the victim of a "campaign of hatred and lies."
"All these artists, intellectuals, diverse celebrities who call in a compulsive way for the blocking of Le Pen in the name of democracy, show their contempt for the people and for democracy," Le Pen said in a statement.
He also criticized what he called the "scandalous interference of prime ministers" from the European Union. Le Pen's fiercely anti-immigrant platform has drawn strong reactions from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and others.
Chirac, in a prime-time television interview Wednesday, called on protesters to show "determination" in their demonstrations – but to do so in a "dignified and reasonable" manner.
France's best-known intellectuals endorsed Chirac in a statement Thursday published in Le Monde. Bernard-Henri Levy, Andre Glucksman and others said, "It is without qualms that each of us will put our Jacques Chirac ballot in the box."
"Let's return the blow: let 90 percent vote Chirac!"
Until last Sunday, France was preparing for a sleepy presidential race, with all polls predicting a run-off between Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
But bored voters abstained at a record rate of 28 percent. Chirac said voters delivered their message clearly.
"Sunday night, I felt what the French were expressing," Chirac told France-2 television. "The concerns, the discontent, the frustration.
"I listened to them during the campaign, Sunday night I heard them, and I understood," he said.
He added that he now worried about the dangers of the extreme right in France.
"The experience, the history of democracy shows that every time the extreme right succeeded in taking power legally, things ended very, very, very badly," Chirac said.
Le Pen says that if elected, he will move to cut France's ties with the European Union, restore border controls to halt the flow of immigrants and phase out income taxes. He opposes abortion, supports the death penalty and has been accused of being anti-Semitic.
Human rights groups and political parties issued a joint statement Thursday calling for protests this weekend in all major French cities. The signatories included France's Communist Party, the Greens, student groups, trade unions and the French Human Rights League.
Artists were asked to gather Tuesday in front of the Pompidou Center, Paris' modern art museum, by the museum's president, Jean-Jacques Aillagon.
Large protests were also called for Wednesday to mark May Day, when Le Pen plans his annual march honoring Joan of Arc, his party's heroine.
One anti-Le Pen group said its protest would begin on a central Paris bridge, where on May 1, 1995, a Moroccan drowned after being pushed into the Seine by a group of National Front supporters at an anti-immigrant rally.
© 2002 The Associated Press
|
|
