Posted on 02/10/2007 9:31:32 PM PST by Rodney King
No longer a joke – France is having to take Le Pen's threat seriously
By Henry Samuel Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 15/11/2006
Besides his penchant for champagne and singing outmoded French songs, far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen is known to like a practical joke.
So when he strode purposefully out of his private office at the National Front's presidential convention outside Paris this weekend towards the press tent, camera crews in tow, nobody seemed overly surprised when he veered off at the last minute into the lavatory.
Jean-Marie Le Pen National Front leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, at his party presidential convention in Le Bourget, Paris
The cameras were still rolling when he reappeared with a grin, chin jutting forth, to carry on with the presidential show.
At 78, Mr Le Pen can afford such low farce: his popularity ratings have never been better.
An IFOP poll in this weekend's Le Monde showed that 18 per cent of the French say they will "definitely" vote for the National Front chief.
That is nine points more than at the same period before the 2002 election, in which he horrified Europe by coming second to Jacques Chirac. advertisement
Mr Le Pen is convinced that his fifth presidential campaign since 1974 – and probably his last – will end in the ultimate electoral earthquake in April's elections: "My goal is not the second round, it's the third: the presidency," he said as he prepared the formal launch of his presidential campaign in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris, yesterday.
Around him in the party's Bleu-Blanc-Rouge hall, party faithful, enacted the traditions of French rural life, playing boules and tombola and tasting local delicacies, such as oysters, Muscat and Corsican cured ham brought by regional National Front representatives.
T-shirts and caps were aligned on one stall with the slogan "Love it [France] or leave it" alongside champagne bottles and lighters with labels of Mr Le Pen smiling in front of the Elysée Palace.
Before 2002, the image would have raised a laugh. This time, his rivals are taking the threat extremely seriously.
The former paratrooper's cause has been helped by a mood of introspective nationalism sweeping France, rocked by last year's suburban riots, a surprise No vote in a referendum on the European constitution and profound disillusionment in its politicians.
His virulent anti-immigration stance, promise of "national preference" but also defence of French sovereignty by, for example, bringing back the Franc, have struck a chord.
"I feel the country's great anxiety in my bones. There are departments like the 93 (Seine Saint-Denis) that are losing a part of their population – the true French, but also law-abiding immigrants who don't want their children dragged through the maelstrom of delinquency and violence," he says.
Observers say that the younger faction of "frontistes", epitomised by his daughter Marine, who condones gay marriage, has given a more progressive face to the brash Le Pen père.
Analysts say that despite his rising ratings, Mr Le Pen's chances of victory in France's presidential elections next year are slimmer than in 2002 because this time the race is dominated by two relatively young candidates: the Socialist Ségolène Royal, 53, and Nicolas Sarkozy, 52, the leader of the ruling centre-Right UMP party.
Both promise change and both speak of a clampdown on security and immigration, a key issue since riots in the rundown immigrant suburbs rocked the country a year ago.
Mr Le Pen is dismissive of both, claiming that they are hijacking what have always been National Front policies. He speaks of Miss Royal as Madame "Nunuch" or Dumbo, and Mr Sarkozy as the Chameleon.
"Their attempt to imitate policies I have been promoting for years is proof that the 'Lepen-isation' of mentalities is well under way. But the people will always prefer the original to the copy," he said.
The popularity of Miss Royal and Mr Sarkozy, and fears of another sudden Le Pen breakthrough, are expected to encourage more people to vote than five years ago.
Mr Le Pen admits that Left-wing sympathisers are more likely to vote tactically in the first round to avoid a repeat of 2002, when he ousted Lionel Jospin, the Socialist candidate.
His greatest hope is for a split in the mainstream Right: although Mr Sarkozy is almost certain to lead the UMP party, the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, and the defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, say they may run, egged on by Jacques Chirac, whose hatred of Mr Sarkozy is well documented.
Mr Le Pen shrugs off suggestions that the hardline Mr Sarkozy is sapping his electorate.
The UMP president's credo of la rupture – a clean break with past politics – is, Mr Le Pen says, laughable, given that he has been in the government for years.
His daughter, Marine, who has been put in charge of campaign strategy, chimes in: "The National Front has won the ideological battle, and, as former Socialist president François Mitterrand said, an ideological victory always precedes a political victory.
"The big question now is, will voters buy these fake revolutionaries who come from the system but claim to want to change it, or will they go for the real thing (the National Front)?"
fpress@telegraph.co.uk
Let's split the difference and call le Pen a Neo-Nazi.
He is in touch with and collaborates with every Neo-Fascist and Neo-Nazi movement in Europe
"A member of the far right in France?
...so he's a just a big government socialist as opposed to a Leninist Communist? "
No, he is a National Socialist, also known as NAZI.
Back?
Hard to regain something you've never had.
National Socialist is more accurate. The Fascist party was Italian.
I think it is important to use accurate terminology...
National Socialist, Soviet Socialist, Fascist... all the same things really...
Stalin was a master propagandist, it was from Stalin where people in the West get the false idea the NAZIs were Fascists.
I have said all along, a lot of French are fed up with all this EU multi cultural BS. There is going to be a backlash and it ain’t going to be pretty.
There were fascist parties in many countries, including France, Britain, Norway, etc.
I never did admore him.
Correction, socialist parties.
"Fascismo" is an Italian word that does not translate into other languages...
Uh huh. Yeah. Ok. The man is campaigning on total repeal of the income tax and you say he is anti-capitalist and a neo-nazi. And what do you mean by neo nazi? Do you mean he wishes to re-create an authoritarian government led by a single leader, wishing to unite all of Europe under control of the Germans? Or is neo-nazi just a term you throw around for people you don't like?
I have found your many post very enligthening. Not only do you not repeat yourself in every post, but you provide sound, reasoned analysis as opposed to the hyperbole so often thrown around FR.
Please don't "correct" me when you clearly don't know what you're talking about. In the 1930s, Sir Oswald Mosely was head of the British Union of Fascists. In France, the major fascist (again, they called themselves that) parties were La Cagoule, Action Francaise and Faisceau (literally the French translation of the "untranslatable" "fascismo").
Why you would presume to lecture me on this boggles the mind.
Additionally, both France and Britain were ruled in the 1930s by socialist parties. In your brilliant estimation of history, would you describe the fascist Action Francaise as supporting or opposing the socialist government of Leon Blum? Would you describe Sir Oswald Mosely of the Union of British Fascists being for against the socialist government of Ramsay Macdonald? Just wondering...
The WSJ yesterday had an interesting article on Ms. Royal, the Socialist candidate. Evidently she has had a long time companion by the name of Holland (spelling may not be correct). They have never married and they have 4 children. I thought to myself while reading the article that if this was the USA she would have no chance. It mentioned she also has been able to get the morning after pill into French high schools. France is truly degenerate.
Neo-Nazi is the correct term for those who follow the tenents of the Adolf Hitler and the old Nazi Party, and who associate and affiliate with the Neo-Nazi network in Europe.
Le Pen is a National Socialist, which still translate to socialism, state ownsership.
Le Pen hates Jews, hates Israel, and hates America.
"But Le Pen is actually a fascist. I don't bandy that word about -- unlike so many others falsely given that label, he comes directly out of the fascist collaborationist movement in France"
Aside from his odious past, he is, in the present, very much connected with the neo-fascist, neo-Nazi movement in France and the rest of Europe.
He was eleven when the war started and would have been seventeen when it ended. He did claim to have participated in some way in the resistance. Just what that would have involved is hard to say. You're right that those who fought don't remember his participation.
His ex-wife, who didn't know him during the war years, said "the only thing he ever did during the occupation was hide a gun under his bed," which is different from what you've said, but they were involved in an acrimonous divorce, and she made other charges that may or may not be true.
It is true that LePen had been a paratrooper in Vietnam and Algeria, so whatever else you can say about him, he wasn't physically a coward. I suppose he does exaggerate -- even lie -- and there are reasons enough for voting against him, but apparently not all of the things said against him are true either.
And le Pen does? He believes in Socialism? Than why is he proposing repeal of the income tax? Does he believe in the Fuhrer principle, or anything close to it?
i and who associate and affiliate with the Neo-Nazi network in Europe.
Perhaps... or perhaps all of the party's that the "democrats" in the EU want to pretend don't exist naturally rally around each other.
Le Pen is a National Socialist, which still translate to socialism, state ownsership.
Except, that he does not. Please provide evidence of this claim.
Le Pen hates Jews, hates Israel, and hates America.
Perhaps... but I'll take that over the coming muslim rule in France.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to actually know something about France, its history, and election process, before posting ignorant nonsense and making a fool of yourself?
When challenged to back up your facts, you resort to personal attack. telling.
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