Chirac re-elected in landslide over ultra-right leader Le Pen
Posted on 05/05/2002 12:03:39 PM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Chirac re-elected in landslide over ultra-right leader Le Pen
05/05/2002
PARIS - President Jacques Chirac was re-elected Sunday in a landslide victory over extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, exit polls showed, after a dramatic presidential race that shook France to its foundations.
All three of France's major polling firms gave Mr. Chirac between 81 and 83 percent of the vote, with Mr. Le Pen getting 17 to just over 18 percent.
Mr. Chirac's huge victory was helped by a larger turnout than for the April 21 first round, when only 72 percent of voters cast ballots. Turnout on Sunday was estimated at about 80 percent.
AP French President Jacques Chirac leaves the polling booth before casting his vote in the second round of the presidential election in Sarran, central France, on Sunday. |
But the result was still likely to resonate bitterly for many in France. The country's considerable leftist electorate voted for Mr. Chirac for no reason other than to block Mr. Le Pen whose first-round showing shocked the country and set off a popular movement to preserve France's democracy and dignity.
Mr. Chirac, whose murkily defined campaign was transformed into a crusade against the far right, now faces the challenges of a weak mandate, the need to answer obvious domestic discontent, and the task of repairing France's damaged international reputation.
Mr. Chirac supporters in downtown Paris erupted in cheers as the news was announced. Mr. Le Pen, from his headquarters near Paris, called the result "a stinging defeat for hope in France."
AP Far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen waves as he leaves after voting in the second round of the presidential election in Saint-Cloud, outside Paris, on Sunday. |
Mr. Chirac has promised to immediately begin implementing a law-and-order agenda, responding to a key voter concern: rising crime. His Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, has said he would leave his job immediately after the election.
Some voters did not go happily to the polls. A few leftists said they were so displeased with the choice offered that they planned to cast ballots for the conservative Mr. Chirac, who is plagued by corruption scandals, wearing latex gloves or with clothespins on their noses. French officials warned that such a public display could lead to fines or the annulment of a vote.
Outside a polling station in the southern town of Villeurbaine, some activists erected a fake voting booth where voters could be sprayed with a mock "disinfectant."
"I obviously voted for Chirac, but against all my values. He is a crook, but better him than a fascist," said Serge Recolin, a 27-year-old medical student on his way to the movies.
But for many, the election, divisive as it was, was a unifying moment as well. Street protests against Mr. Le Pen, a fixture on the fringes of French politics who was widely viewed as racist and anti-Semitic, drew people from across the political spectrum, of all ages and strata of society, some in wheelchairs and some pushing strollers.
Mr. Le Pen, 73, silver-haired and theatrical, who famously once called Nazi gas chambers "a detail" of World War II history, scored slightly better than the nearly 17 percent he got in the first round, but much worse than the 30 percent he'd hoped for.
Anything above that, analysts said, could have spelled trouble in legislative elections next month. The all-important parliamentary vote determines the prime minister and the shape of government, and will decide whether Mr. Chirac gets a center-right majority or whether the left can rebound and retain control of the government.
Despite Mr. Chirac's margin of victory, it was hard to see how any score could be interpreted as a clear mandate, given the scope of the protest vote against Mr. Le Pen.
Mr. Chirac, 69, is seen as a consummate diplomat abroad but is plagued by suspicions of corruption at home, stemming from when he was mayor of Paris. Investigators want to question him about his use of hundreds of thousands of public dollars for personal vacations, and also allegations that city hall received millions in kickbacks, then funneled the money into political parties like Mr. Chirac's Rally for the Republic.
"Vote for the crook, not the fascist," was a rallying cry for some of the anti-Le Pen protesters the past two weeks.
One of the most improbable elections in French history began with an unwieldy first round on April 21, when 16 candidates of all stripes faced off for the two spots in Sunday's runoff.
Many voters stayed home or on vacation, bored by a campaign that appeared certain to pit Mr. Chirac against Mr. Jospin, seen as earnest but dull. It was a repeat of the last election in 1995, and a matchup that excited few. Abstentions reached 28 percent.
But a highly fragmented field sapped strength from the main candidates, and the first round, often seen as merely a protest vote, turned into a political earthquake when Mr. Le Pen slipped by Mr. Jospin by less than a percentage point to make the runoff.
Many voters said they had been concerned about rising crime, and didn't feel the main candidates had taken the problem seriously.
A shocked Mr. Jospin declared he would retire from politics, and Mr. Chirac who scored just under 20 percent, the lowest ever for an incumbent president told the nation he'd heard its message of discontent.
In the streets, meanwhile, citizens mobilized to express their horror at Mr. Le Pen's showing. The protests reached their apex on May 1, the traditional labor holiday, when well over a million people marched in more than 100 cities and towns.
"N for Nazi, F for Fascist," many chanted, referring to the initials of Mr. Le Pen's National Front.
Mr. Le Pen returned to the extreme rhetoric he had stayed away from in the first-round campaign proposing, for example, that illegal aliens be placed in "transit camps" before deportation and that a "special train" be organized to send them to Britain chilling Nazi-era language.
For Mr. Chirac, his campaign was transformed.
"The response is not extremism," an energized Mr. Chirac told supporters in the northern suburb of Villepinte. "The leaders of the far right betrayed the French people by allying with the forces of evil and the enemies of our homeland. History has definitively disqualified them from speaking on behalf of France."
What will world alliances look like in twenty five years when the U.S. is aligned with Russia, Eastern Europe and India vs. Western "Dar Aslaam" (formerly Western Europe, now the land of Islam) ?
I am betting on the former. From my admittedly limited knowledge, I understand that self-hatred and political correctness are not prevalent on the Eastern half of the Continent.
But no need to pick on the French; we do the same thing here on a daily basis.
Le Pen is out of step with the new world order folks. Nah, being for your own country first is only appropriate for Sharon and Arafat.
I presumed French leftists always needed to wear clothespins on their noses!
Le Pen would have done so with an iron fist.
But we will undoubtedly hear about it ad nauseum, and many of those complaining loudest about it will be those who were at the forefront at the campaign to demonize Le Pen.
I will unreservedly condemn this anti-Semetic Muhammedean aggression (but, I will also condemn other acts of Muhammedean aggression, such as gang-raping French girls, with equal gusto), but at least I can honestly that I did not demonize the man who was willing to confront it.
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