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Chirac, Le Pen Win 1st Round Presidential, Jospin Out
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euphoric Le Pen wasn’t expecting it
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PARIS, April 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Conservative President Jacques Chirac and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen won Sunday the first round of France's presidential election, eliminating Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from the race.
Statistics showed Chirac in first place with between 19.7 and 20 percent of the vote, Le Pen second with between 17 and 17.9 percent of the vote and Jospin third on 15.8 percent.
Veteran of France's far-right, Jean-Marie Le Pen hailed his historic score in the first round of French presidential elections Sunday as "a big defeat" for the country's two mainstream leaders, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
This is the first time a far-rightist takes a second place in the polls. The result is "a big defeat for the two establishment leaders", Le Pen said amid euphoria from his supporters in the National Front.
In the last month, Le Pen has shown himself still a vigorous campaigner, thrilling audiences of mainly aging supporters with his oratory and posing as the underestimated victim of a vindictive political establishment.
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| Chirac in first place with between 19.7 and 20 percent of the
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His political career began in 1956, when he became a deputy for the shop-keepers' party of Pierre Poujade. In 1965, he helped run the election campaign of far-right candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, and in 1972 he set up the FN. He warned of the threat to French life from North African immigration.
Le Pen is associated in the minds of those who do not agree with him with bigotry, bullying and belligerence. In this election, he is campaigning on familiar themes: he wants 200,000 new prison places, the abolition of inheritance tax so that small businesses can pass from father to son, a re-negotiation of European treaties.
Still immigration is still the key. "The insecurity that threatens to drag our country into the abyss has one principal cause, immigration," he said.
"What began as a tool to keep down the cost of labor has become an instrument of colonization."
The way crime has become the focus of this year's presidential election campaign has undoubtedly played into his hands, as has the unprecedented number of candidates, which has spread the vote out thinly and reduced the support of the front-runners.
He has little hope of winning the run-off against his arch-enemy President Jacques Chirac in two weeks time, estimates says, yet for now, they added, Le Pen must be gloating over the misfortune of the establishment he so despises.
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