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American Morning

Hundreds of Thousands of French in May Day Rally Against Le Pen

Aired May 01, 2002 - 08:02   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: Up front this morning, May Day mayhem. Riot police in cities around the world are appealing for calm as thousands take to the streets in protests and rallies. May Day is recognized as labor day in many countries and working class protests are not unusual. In Paris this morning, thousands of people are marching in the streets.

And that is where we find our own Jim Bitterman -- good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

The big rally here this morning was the rally for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the extreme right presidential candidate. It's right now breaking up and the focus us starting to shift across town, where hundreds of thousands of people are said to be gathering for rallies against Jean-Marie Le Pen, people who want to make sure that he does not succeed in his bid to become the next president of France.

Earlier, Le Pen led a march of tens of thousands of his supporters through the heart of Paris. It went off fairly peacefully. It's the kind of thing that's become something of a tradition here but unlike tradition, since he's a presidential candidate, it commanded much more attention than in the past.

Then he delivered a speech here at the Place de la Opera, an hour and 20 minutes long. He hit on some of the themes that he's been hitting on in the past, against the euro currency, the European community, against immigration, the French penal system and just about anything you could think of that he doesn't like, he and his supporters don't like, and he got cheers from crowd at every turn. He also made fun of Jacques Chirac as the big liar and ridiculed many of his socialist opponents.

The shift, as I said, is moving across town now to where anti-Le Pen demonstrations are gathering. And it's there that 3,500 police are on duty, looking for any signs of trouble. There's a great fear that with the passions that have been stirred by the presidential elections here, that just about anything could happen -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Jim Bitterman, we've got a little bit of a delay there. We can...

BITTERMAN: I mean it's very difficult to know...

ZAHN: Go ahead, Jim.

BITTERMAN: Well, I was just going to add that we're going to be standing by all during the day today just to sort of keep an eye on these things. It's very difficult, of course, there's small gangs that have broken off from these various demonstrations. And that's what the police really fear most are the idea of these isolated groups that could cause some trouble -- Paula.

ZAHN: All right, Jim Bitterman, thanks for that up[date from Paris.

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