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CNN Live Today

Extreme Right Wing Candidate Makes it Into French Runoff

Aired April 22, 2002 - 11:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to check in on the big international political story right now. France waking up with a big election hangover today. Extreme right-wing candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, made it into the presidential runoff. He is facing incumbent Jacques Chirac.

It is set for May 5, but the big news is who will not be in that runoff. And our Chris Burns is live in Paris today to tell us more about that -- Chris, hello.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- good morning. A nation trying to come with grips with what happened last night. A lot of people still in shock that the socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, came in third, one point behind Jean-Marie Le Pen, shocking the country. And Jean-Marie Le Pen coming ahead with his promises to fight immigration and to fight unemployment by fighting immigration, and also by fighting crime.

All of those he is linking together in a very populous sort of cocktail that seems to be appealing to quite a bit of people, perhaps as many as one in five voters in the country could vote for him again on the second round on May 5. That has got a lot of people worried. Newspapers showing the shock that the country is feeling. "Non" says simply the leftist newspaper, "La Parisien."

So there is a lot -- a lot of people are very, very upset. Of course, rejoicing on the other sigh by Jean-Marie Le Pen. He just had a press conference in which he went on the attack, obviously attacking President Jacques Chirac, the conservative, calling him a corrupt leader, saying that this election will mark the end of, in his words, a decadent and corrupt political system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN-MARIE LE PEN, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through translator): Everywhere the vote for Le Pen is improving. Rural (ph) France, true France, France of the workshop and trade has given me its trust, and this is a tidal wave which has gone across the country hitting even the socialists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNS: So a lot of sound. He is Mr. Sound Byte, really you are going to hear a lot of this tidal wave going against the technocracy, the elite of the country. I am the man supporting and representing the little people, the little guy. He is going to continue harping away at that for the next two weeks right up until the May 5 election. That is what Jacques Chirac has to face and try to face without battling it out in the same way. So we are going to have to see how he does that.

Also, protests overnight. There was a protest overnight by thousands of people who just took to the streets in shock. More are gathering today in the Place de la Concorde (ph) in Paris, a traditional place of protest for the French left. They will be out there in droves, in numbers. We will be covering that a little bit later, and of course, look ahead to the May 1 protest, not only by the workers on Worker's Day, a very typical day for the workers to get out and protest, but also for -- it's a traditional day for the Le Pen supporters. Every year they go out there and go out and support Le Pen. So there could very well be some street action that we'll have to keep track of on that day -- back to you.

KAGAN: All right. We will be tracking it, watching it -- fascinating political developments from France. Chris Burns, thank you so much.

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