sexy-girl
sacrilegious
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2001
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kind of shocking 
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French far-right candidate near major upset
PARIS (AP) — In a huge upset, extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified today to face incumbent Jacques Chirac in the run-off for French president, according to media projections based on exit polls.
Le Pen, who virulently opposes immigration and has been accused during his long political career of racism and anti-Semitism, was projected to place second by all three major French networks, beating Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who was in third place.
The projected result was seen as a political earthquake. For months, polls had consistently projected that Chirac, a conservative, and Jospin, a Socialist, would be the top two finishers in Sunday's first round.
Le Pen is founder and head of the National Front party, which historically has blamed immigrants, especially from North Africa, for high unemployment and urban violence. He is notorious for once describing the Holocaust as "a detail" of history. He has denied he is anti-Semitic.
He attributed his victory to the deep concern among French voters over rising crime — concern that, he said, hadn't been addressed by the government.
"There is a dramatic state of (public) insecurity in our country," he said, "and those responsible for it, the people have understood, are Jospin and Chirac."
Speaking just after the projections were announced when polls closed at 8 p.m., Le Pen called the result "a great flash of lucidity by the French people."
Neither Chirac nor Jospin had an immediate comment.
There was also no immediate reaction from other European governments, though Le Pen's apparent success was likely to cause concern in countries like Germany and Italy, where governments are also coping with anti-immigrant sentiment.
Flamboyant, charismatic and also frequently boorish, Le Pen, 73, is something of a French institution. He's played a central role as kingmaker in past presidential elections, with a typical score of 15 per cent. He placed third in the last two races; now, in his fourth presidential campaign, he could conceivably be elected president in the May 5 run-off.
A former paratrooper who fought in Indochina and Algeria, the silver-haired Le Pen strikes a chord among voters who fear that the French identity is being displaced by waves of mainly Muslim immigrants from North Africa. Le Pen often compares immigration to an invasion.
Only a matter of weeks ago, Le Pen was complaining that he might not get the required 500 endorsements from elected officials to become a candidate this year. He blamed Chirac for trying to sabotage his campaign.
Also during the campaign, Chirac had to publicly deny allegations that he met personally with Le Pen between the two rounds of the 1988 presidential contest — a sign of how isolated Le Pen is from the political establishment.
France has been governed since 1981 by Chirac's mainstream right or the Socialists on the left. Centrists held power in previous terms.
For Jospin, a political heir of the late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand who has served as prime minister since 1997, Sunday's apparent results were a crushing blow.
The three French TV networks based their projections on exit polls conducted by three top polling firms: Sofres, IPSOS, and CSA.
The firms estimated variously that Chirac had won between 19.8 and 20 per cent of the vote; Le Pen between 17 and 17.9 per cent; and Jospin 16 to 16.1 per cent.
Sunday's first-round voting featured a record 16 candidates and an abstention rate estimated at 28 per cent — the highest in nearly four decades.
Many voters said they were disillusioned because Chirac and Jospin were well-worn faces in France who did not represent change. Also, many saw few differences between Chirac and Jospin's political platforms. Both pledged to stem rising crime, cut taxes and reduce unemployment.
French people in the streets expressed astonishment when they heard of the media projections.
"That's not possible," said Agathe Romon, 17, a student in Paris. "It's unbelievable. We were all expecting a duel between Jospin and Chirac."
On a Eurostar train leaving London for Paris on Sunday evening, travellers exclaimed in disbelief after the election result was announced over the loudspeakers.
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French far-right candidate near major upset
PARIS (AP) — In a huge upset, extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified today to face incumbent Jacques Chirac in the run-off for French president, according to media projections based on exit polls.
Le Pen, who virulently opposes immigration and has been accused during his long political career of racism and anti-Semitism, was projected to place second by all three major French networks, beating Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who was in third place.
The projected result was seen as a political earthquake. For months, polls had consistently projected that Chirac, a conservative, and Jospin, a Socialist, would be the top two finishers in Sunday's first round.
Le Pen is founder and head of the National Front party, which historically has blamed immigrants, especially from North Africa, for high unemployment and urban violence. He is notorious for once describing the Holocaust as "a detail" of history. He has denied he is anti-Semitic.
He attributed his victory to the deep concern among French voters over rising crime — concern that, he said, hadn't been addressed by the government.
"There is a dramatic state of (public) insecurity in our country," he said, "and those responsible for it, the people have understood, are Jospin and Chirac."
Speaking just after the projections were announced when polls closed at 8 p.m., Le Pen called the result "a great flash of lucidity by the French people."
Neither Chirac nor Jospin had an immediate comment.
There was also no immediate reaction from other European governments, though Le Pen's apparent success was likely to cause concern in countries like Germany and Italy, where governments are also coping with anti-immigrant sentiment.
Flamboyant, charismatic and also frequently boorish, Le Pen, 73, is something of a French institution. He's played a central role as kingmaker in past presidential elections, with a typical score of 15 per cent. He placed third in the last two races; now, in his fourth presidential campaign, he could conceivably be elected president in the May 5 run-off.
A former paratrooper who fought in Indochina and Algeria, the silver-haired Le Pen strikes a chord among voters who fear that the French identity is being displaced by waves of mainly Muslim immigrants from North Africa. Le Pen often compares immigration to an invasion.
Only a matter of weeks ago, Le Pen was complaining that he might not get the required 500 endorsements from elected officials to become a candidate this year. He blamed Chirac for trying to sabotage his campaign.
Also during the campaign, Chirac had to publicly deny allegations that he met personally with Le Pen between the two rounds of the 1988 presidential contest — a sign of how isolated Le Pen is from the political establishment.
France has been governed since 1981 by Chirac's mainstream right or the Socialists on the left. Centrists held power in previous terms.
For Jospin, a political heir of the late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand who has served as prime minister since 1997, Sunday's apparent results were a crushing blow.
The three French TV networks based their projections on exit polls conducted by three top polling firms: Sofres, IPSOS, and CSA.
The firms estimated variously that Chirac had won between 19.8 and 20 per cent of the vote; Le Pen between 17 and 17.9 per cent; and Jospin 16 to 16.1 per cent.
Sunday's first-round voting featured a record 16 candidates and an abstention rate estimated at 28 per cent — the highest in nearly four decades.
Many voters said they were disillusioned because Chirac and Jospin were well-worn faces in France who did not represent change. Also, many saw few differences between Chirac and Jospin's political platforms. Both pledged to stem rising crime, cut taxes and reduce unemployment.
French people in the streets expressed astonishment when they heard of the media projections.
"That's not possible," said Agathe Romon, 17, a student in Paris. "It's unbelievable. We were all expecting a duel between Jospin and Chirac."
On a Eurostar train leaving London for Paris on Sunday evening, travellers exclaimed in disbelief after the election result was announced over the loudspeakers.
