FRANCE: THOUSANDS RALLY FOR SECOND DAY IN PROTEST AT UNEXPECTED FIRST ROUND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SUCCESS OF JEAN MARIE LE PEN

Record ID: 215499

  • Title: FRANCE: THOUSANDS RALLY FOR SECOND DAY IN PROTEST AT UNEXPECTED FIRST ROUND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SUCCESS OF JEAN MARIE LE PEN
  • Date: 24th March 2002
  • Summary: (U6) PARIS, FRANCE (22 APRIL 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV DEMONSTRATORS AROUND REPUBLIC MONUMENT; SLV POLICEMEN WATCHING DEMONSTRATORS; SLV DEMONSTRATORS STANDING ON MONUMENT; MV DEMONSTRATORS HOLDING BANNERS AND CHANTING; SCU MAN CHANTING; SCU BANNER READING: "NO TO FASCISTS"; SLV CROWD CHANTING: "WE ARE ALL THE SONS OF IMMIGRANTS, FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD GENE
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA28QUMXR5RHNG2B4IBN1ZLLUZ0
  • Story Text: Thousands of people have rallied in Paris for the
    second day in a row, to protest the unexpected win of Jean
    Marie Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential
    elections.

    Some 10.000 people rallied along Paris streets on
    Monday (22 April, 2002) to protest the presence of far-right
    candidate Jean Marie Le Pen in the upcoming second round of
    the French presidential elections.

    The demonstration was called by the Young Communists
    Movement and the Revolutionary Communist League. The
    protesters gathered at the Republic square and then marched
    down to Bastille, where another protest had already been
    staged on Sunday (21 April), after the results of the first
    round of elections became public.

    This time, the slogan "Together against Death Penalty" had
    been replaced by "Le Pen is against France".

    Further anti-Le Pen demonstrations were staged in other
    French cities on Sunday (21 April), and several more are
    expected to be organized in the coming days.

    The once-regal presidency, cornerstone of the system
    General Charles de Gaulle introduced in 1958, was already
    shaky before the vote in which far-right leader Jean-Marie Le
    Pen knocked Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin out of the
    running.

    Now the prospect of an unequal contest in the May 5 runoff
    against President Jacques Chirac, all but assured of victory
    given widespread public loathing for Le Pen's rabble-rousing,
    means the head of state will be what critics call "the worst
    elected president ever".

    Offered no real choice in the runoff, analysts say, fickle
    voters in June's legislative polls might then offset Chirac's
    power by electing a left-wing government, a possible
    knock-out punch that could make a mockery of the whole
    political system.

    Chirac, a conservative bidding for a second term, polled
    less than 20 percent of the vote, the lowest of any
    frontrunner in the history of the Fifth Republic. Unexpectedly
    set to face Le Pen in the May 5 decisive poll, he spent most
    of the day on Monday (22 April) meeting with various other
    right wing leaders and party members in an effort to achieve
    an electoral coalition that will ensure his triumph.


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