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American Morning

Le Pen to Run Against Chirac in France's Presidential Election

Aired April 22, 2002 - 09:43   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Talk about wake-up calls, it is being called a political earthquake. In a major upset in France, the extreme rightist candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen, qualified in the polls Sunday to face President Jacques Chirac in a runoff for the French presidency. Le Pen is a former paratrooper, his long campaign with an anti-immigration message and the news of his victory sparked protests in several cities around France.

CNN's Jim Bittermann joins us now with more from Paris.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

The French woke up with a real hangover this morning. No one ever anticipated the kind of results from the presidential elections that came down yesterday, the results that allow Jean-Marie Le Pen to face off with President Jacques Chirac in the final for the presidential palace.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, as you mentioned, an ex-paratrooper, pugnacious, some would say fascist, candidate, a man who once called the Holocaust a mere detail of history, went on television last night to reiterate the message that he's had so often in the past saying that France belongs to the French, a message that availed reference to his policies against immigration. He'd like to see illegal immigrants immediately expelled from France and get strict controls on any further immigration into the country.

Meanwhile, across town at the headquarters of Lionel Jospin, the Prime Minister, there were tears as news of the election results came down, tears and jeers. People were absolutely unbelieving at the news. They could not believe what they were hearing. Jospin himself said he understood the consequences, and he said he would step down from active political life after the presidential elections.

In the streets -- out in the streets of Paris and elsewhere in other cities, there were almost immediately demonstrations against Le Pen. People carrying signs that said I'm ashamed to be French and other signs. And a lot of people just complaining about the idea that the system had allowed Le Pen to get to a place where he will be in the runoffs for the presidential palace.

There are more demonstrations planned for today, including a demonstration about two and a half hours from now and other demonstrations later on this week as people want to prove to the outside world that France is not some kind of a national front haven, some kind of an ultranationalist haven -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Jim, you talked a little bit about the shock waves this has created in France, tell us a little bit more about the impact of Le Pen's victory in this runoff election outside of France.

BITTERMANN: Well, for one thing, it's not totally important in the sense -- in a very pragmatic sense in as many of the left wing parties have now said that their supporters should vote for President Jacques Chirac. So it almost certainly means that Jacques Chirac, according to some predictions, will get as much as 80 percent of the vote in the second round of the elections. So Jacques Chirac will continue on the Ellysse Palace (ph). There'll be legislative elections after that and it's not clear at all how they'll turn out, but it's fairly likely that the mainstream parties will continue to hold sway within the national assembly.

So in that sense it's not particularly important, but it illustrated several things. First off, that there's a major disconnect in this country between the voters and their -- the politicians who govern them. The politicians just did not understand how deeply people felt about some of the issues like crime and security. Those were issues that people felt very strongly about and the candidates in their sort of lackluster campaigning that went on did not address those kinds of issues.

And also I think there's a -- it's terribly important for the image of France. France has always believed itself to be a high bearer of republican standards. They've always preached to other countries who have had these kind of ultranational strains develop, and so France can no longer do that. They no longer have the moral high ground on the issue of nationalism and the right wing politics -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Jim Bittermann, thank you very much. Shock waves still being felt there today as Jim made so clear.

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