Posted on 07/05/2009 11:25:31 PM PDT by Cincinna
A leftist candidate backed by an array of political parties successfully staved off his far-right opponent in a mayoral race Sunday that the National Front had hope would start its comeback.
Other parties, from communists to President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservatives, rallied behind Daniel Duquenne whom voters designated the new mayor of Henin-Beaumont, a former mining town in northern France, in a runoff race.
The victor was sprayed with tear gas minutes after the results were announced, a police officer said by telephone, confirming reports on France-Info radio and the French TV station iTele. Duquenne was not injured and the aggressor or aggressors fled, said the officer who was not authorized to discuss the situation and demanded anonymity.
Police patrolled the streets of Henin-Beaumont, and planned to maintain their presence throughout the night, the officer said.
Far-right National Front candidate Steeve Briois had won last week's first-round vote with a 20-point margin, but parties fearing a return of the far right banded together to block him in the final round of the bi-election.
Duquenne's victory was slim but comfortable, with 52.4 percent of the vote, compared to Briois' 47.6 percent.
The barrage of support for Duquenne recalled the successful bid to block National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 2002 presidential race against President Jacques Chirac.
However, the National Front was not about to go down easily. Briois announced plans to ask the administrative court to cancel the election results, saying Duquenne won "dishonestly." Briois claimed that his opponent told various media outlets that the city of 26,000 would lose state subsidies if the National Front won.
The Henin-Beaumont election was organized after Socialist Mayor Gerard Dalongeville was jailed in early April on preliminary charges of alleged extortion and favoritism. He was excluded from the Socialist Party.
"I'm happy with what my political family did for this election," a top aide to Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, said on French television, referring to the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, to band with Socialists and other rivals against the National Front. "This is the triumph of democracy."
The anti-immigration party, once a feared political force in France, never fully recovered from Le Pen's crushing defeat in the runoff of the 2002 presidential race as parties on the left and right joined to defeat him.
Losses in the legislative elections and the 2007 presidential vote sent the anti-immigration party spiraling into debt, and it was forced to sell its headquarters last year.
The far-right won four southern towns in 1995, but later lost them. It looked to Henin-Beaumont, just south of Lille, as a new chance to put its mark on France's political map.
Marine Le Pen, daughter of the National Front leader and his likely successor, saw victory in the defeat with the relatively close results. "We're not losers in this vote," she said on French television. "The results are a starting point for the National Front of tomorrow
...so a French “far right wing” candidate is what? Someone who lower taxes a little?
No just a rabid old fascist who belittles the Holocaust and scores a few points among voters with populist anti-muslim, anti-foreigner remarks.
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***
The defeat of Marine le Pen, the daughter and successor pf her father, head of the Front Nationale, Jean-Marie le Pen, has been officially confirmed.
Conservatives should ber aware that le Pen and his daughter, and the National Fron Party have NOTHING in common with what we know and identify as Conservatism.
Le Pen, his daughter,Marine, and their party, the FN or National Front are neo-fascist parties, not Conservative. They are anti-American, anti-free-trade, anti-Capitalist, anti-semitic, racist and xenophobic.They are for an alliance of business with the State, as in National Socialism or Nazism. They do not believe in the free speech, freedom of religion, or the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
The shocker is just hopw close this election was.
Good riddance!
Euro politics in general can seem sort of inscrutable to us Americans. Their liberals are as close to an equivalent to our conservatives as you'll get, but they're more like the "good government" establishment types. McCain, but a little more to the left.
Then, you have out and out socialists and communists, who make no bones about it. This is their left.
Their right is often La Rouchean at best, and downright fascist at worst, always pegged on 11. No reasonable rightists in favor of limited government and individual rights. That seems to be a uniquely American, and to a lesser extent, Canadian and Australian, phenomenon.
Megan McCain?
Ya and tell em to look up his WTC comments, bro.
Le Pen is a Holocoast denier as well as one who believes that 911 was an inside job, carried out by Israel and the Jews.
This is just racism, race hatred, and downright stupidity.
He opposes everything America, especially out Middle East policy and the war in Iraq.
‘Le Pen is a Holocoast denier as well as one who believes that 911 was an inside job, carried out by Israel and the Jews.
This is just racism, race hatred, and downright stupidity.
He opposes everything America, especially out Middle East policy and the war in Iraq.’
We have some of those types here.
Good thing Le Pan wasn’t elected
So, in other words, they're Democrats.
Goodbye Le Pen
Why don’t more people call BS on this “far-right” crap when they’re really talking about NAZIS???
(Humming to self.) Should all acquaintence be forgot . . .
So they're basically just your mainstream American Democrats.
This political situation is similar to the Governor’s race a few years back, in 1991, which involved the winner, Democrat Edwin Edwards, a crook with a gambling problem, facing Republican David Duke of the KKK.
Good comparison. Joining forces to defeat evil.
The defeated candidate is Marine le Pen, the daughter of Jeab-Marie. He is too old to run, and wants to give his party a younger appeal.
She is just as bad as her father.
“...so a French “far right wing” candidate is what? Someone who lower taxes a little?”
A “far right wing” candidate is someone who publicly objects to giving the country away to immigrants who want to impose Sharia law on the natives.
Some old ethnic grudges die hard especially after a lifetime of “training” but when this “respectable” mayor elect continues with the sellout to the muslims I guess the LePen haters in France can find yet another country to flee to.
Yes it is. In that NIETHER are acceptable. And trying to pick which is worse is like picking which venereal disease you want to get. I'd have smeared dog doo on a blank ballot and cast that if I had to vote in either or those elections.
Racist kook Duke or extremely corrupt criminal scrum Edwards? Fascist and guilty Ms. Le Pen or typical French Socialst Duquenne? Pass and pass.
I applaud you though Cincinna for your accurate description of the Le Pen crap heels.
Neo-Fascists like Le Pen and the BNP are called far right in Europe in order to shield the left from the association despite their similar anti-capitalist views. Unfortunately non-fascist and non-racist parties like the UKIP and the Freedom party in Austria are also called "far-right" cause they don't like mass Muslim immigration.
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