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World Shocked At Le Pen Win
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| Far-right National Front party leader and presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen |
PARIS,
April 22 (News Agencies) - European politicians and media reacted with
shock on Monday, April 22, to the success of far-right leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen in France's presidential vote, describing the
surprise as a catastrophe and a wake-up call for Europe, news agencies
reported.
In
Germany, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Monday that Le Pen's
success in advancing into the second round of French presidential
elections was alarming. "The score of the far right is
alarming," Fischer said at a meeting of his Greens party
executive committee in Berlin.
The
German government has not yet reacted officially to Sunday's vote in
France.
Government
spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye said Schroeder has not yet spoken to either
conservative President Jacques Chirac, who will face Le Pen in the
second round, or Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who failed on
Sunday to make the final round.
In
London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is confident the French
people will reject extremism, his spokesman said Monday. "It is
not for us to interfere in the French election, which is for the
French people alone to decide," the spokesman told reporters.
"But we trust the French people to reject extremism of any
kind."
In
reaction also to Le Pen’s win the president of the European
Parliament, Pat Cox, said Monday he expects democrats in France to
overcome Le Pen's shock challenge for the French presidency.
In
a statement, Cox cautioned that "definitive conclusions" on
the future of French politics could only be reached after round two of
the presidential polls on May 5 and legislative elections in June.
“The future of France will necessarily affect the future of
Europe," he said.
But
he added: "As regards the second round of the presidential
election, I am confident that all democrats in France will rally
behind democratic values and stand up against intolerance and
xenophobia."
"After
the legislative elections, I have no doubt that France will retain her
place in the mainstream of politics of tolerance in Europe, thereby
reaffirming Europe's fundamental values and principles."
A
leader of Italy's hard right National Alliance distanced his party
Monday from France's Jean-Marie Le Pen, saying the nationalist
firebrand who won a place in the run-off for French president would
not make a good national leader.
"Let
me say this, if I had been in France I would have voted yesterday for
[President Jacques] Chirac and not for Le Pen," said Maurizio
Gasparri, who serves as communications minister in the rightwing
government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"We
haven't followed Le Pen for a long time," Gasparri told the
Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica newspapers in separate
interviews. “I don't think Le Pen will be the republic's president
... I think he's gone as far as he can," he said.
Le
Pen, euro skeptic leader of the far-right National Front party,
stunned France by taking second place in Sunday's first round of
presidential voting, setting up a run-off with the conservative
incumbent, Jacques Chirac, and eliminating Socialist Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin from the race.
Le
Pen is a member of the European Parliament, the European Union's only
directly elected institution, though he attends its plenary
infrequently. He is the veteran leader of the National Front, an
anti-immigrant, euro skeptic movement often accused of fomenting
racism and anti-Semitism.
Gasparri
noted that Le Pen and his National Front campaigned for election on
themes of security and immigration, "which are central concerns
of people, whether one likes it or not."
"But
I don't think that Le Pen has government solutions for these
problems," he said.
"I
don't think that the 16 percent of French (who voted for Le Pen) are
racists," he added. "But I think that their fears and
protests should be heard by Chirac before the (legislative) elections
in June or else there will be problems."
Algerian
opposition newspaper Le Matin said the vote proved that
"a racist discourse and the focus on insecurity reaped rewards in
electoral terms".
"The
media, by hyping up urban violence, has to take some
responsibility," Le Matin said.
The
result "reflects an about-face in public opinion and an
unexpected slide towards the far right," wrote Algerian daily
newspaper, Liberte, adding that the first-round result
represented "a regression that recalls National Socialism and all
its crimes".
Algeria
is a former French colony and has a large immigrant population in
France.
Meanwhile,
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Elie Yishai called Monday on the Jews of
France to pack up and emigrate to Israel following the Le Pen’s
success.
Le
Pen was greeted with horror in Israel
on Monday, with many papers describing him as an unabashed racist and
anti-semite.
Israeli
public radio said Le Pen was "neo-fascist, racist, anti-Semitic
and xenophobic."
The
Israeli daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot said it was shocked
by Le Pen's success in Sunday's first round of voting in which he
surprisingly knocked socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin out of the
race. "One French person out of six voted on Sunday for the
extreme right leader who once described the Holocaust as a 'detail' of
history," said the paper.
It
said that even many Jewish voters had voted for Le Pen because of
their "hatred for Arabs".
Israeli
daily newspaper, Ha’aretz spoke of a "historic success
for the extreme right", and also stressed that Le Pen had
benefited from support from France's Jewish community.
In
an interview with Ha’aretz published Friday Le Pen said he
"totally understands the state of Israel
which is seeking to defend its citizens" in cracking down on the
Palestinians. He added that "Fortunately there will never be
Islamic unity."
Le
Pen beat Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to advance into the
May 5 final round of the election with 17 percent of the vote behind
Chirac who garnered 19.7 percent.
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