PARIS,
May 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Jacques Chirac and
Jean-Marie Le Pen held their last public rallies of the tense French
presidential campaign Thursday, with Le Pen trying to rebound from
mass protests against his far-right, anti-immigrant views.
Some
1.3 million people flooded the streets of cities and towns across
France Wednesday, including 400,000 in Paris, displaying public
outrage at Le Pen ahead of Sunday's election, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
France
was engulfed Wednesday by a human tidal wave of peaceful protest
against Le Pen.
More
than 400,000 people gathered in Paris, and more than 1,300,000 across
France - from cities to the smallest towns and even villages - to
decry the presence of the veteran National Front leader in the second
round of the presidential election, reported British daily newspaper, The
Independent.
The
crowds in the capital were so enormous - 500,000-plus, organizers
said, 400,000 according to the police - that there were fears for the
safety of the protesters packed into the Place de la République
(Republic) and the Place de la Bastille. Many people fainted and had
to be lifted to safety.
Although
the march was organized by trade unions and anti-racist groups, it was
by no means confined to the left. Tens of thousands of Parisians, many
of them in family groups, used their May Day holiday to protest, and
possibly show their regret at having failed to vote in the first round
of the election.
Chirac
was to address supporters at a rally in Villepinte outside Paris at
8:00 pm (1800 GMT) Thursday. Le Pen is in France's second-city
Marseille in the south.
While
Chirac's camp organized several large meetings since the first round,
Thursday marks Le Pen's only campaign rally since April 21, apart from
a speech at a disappointing FN protest in Paris Wednesday.
Le
Pen will try to regain momentum in Marseille after only 10,000 to
20,000 marched on his behalf in Paris, according to police and media
estimates - well short of the 100,000 predicted by his far-right
party.
Some
1,500 police have been mobilized ahead of the rally at the Palais des
Sports in the Mediterranean port city, amid fears that violence could
erupt between FN faithful and about 60 left-wing groups planning a
counter-protest.
Police
said they expected at least 30,000 anti-Le Pen demonstrators -
matching the number that denounced his anti-immigrant views in a May
Day protest there -- and adopted a zero-tolerance stance on
wrongdoing.
"Anyone
who tries to do battle with or approach the police will be caught and
detained," Marseille police chief Yves Dassonville told AFP.
About
40 people were detained in Paris during the May Day protests but only
15 remained in custody Thursday, police said.
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Anti-Le Pen demonstrators fill the Place de la Bastille in Paris.
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Charismatic
Le Pen, who campaigned on an anti-immigrant, anti-European Union
platform and vowed to curb France's spiraling crime rate, won about 23
percent of the vote in Marseille in the first round.
He
said the anti-Le Pen rally in Paris - the biggest demonstration in the
capital since a march for private education in 1984 - left him
"completely indifferent."
"I
listen to voters, not to protestors," he told France Inter radio.
"I've never accepted the law of the street, but rather the law of
the ballot boxes. Democratic reality is only counted at the ballot
boxes."
Le
Pen vowed to pursue his political agenda even if defeated on Sunday,
saying he would lead his party in June's legislative polls.
However,
opinion polls suggested Chirac will be re-elected with at least 77 per
cent of the vote but e-mail rumors were sweeping France of
"secret" intelligence service polls showing Le Pen gaining
42 per cent, reported The Independent.
The
rumors were officially denied, but France remains in a febrile, almost
panicky mood, which perhaps explains the magnitude of the protests
