The Crook or the Fascist

Chirac vs Le Pen

Dateline: 1 May 2002

In reaction to Jean-Marie Le Pen's shocking victory on 21 April, more than one million people across France spent May Day on the streets. Rather than celebrating their solidarity with other workers as they normally would on the international 1st May holiday, the protesters of just about every age and political persuasion were united against Jean-Marie Le Pen and his extreme-right party, the Front National.

Somewhere between 400,000 and 900,000* Parisians took to the streets with posters and a peaceful sense of community which left the 3,500 riot officers deployed throughout the city with little to do. At least another million people protested in a hundred other cities and towns across France.

* According to the police and the organizers, respectively.

Protesters made it clear with their placards and chants that they are anti-Le Pen, rather than pro-Chirac. Indeed, during the first round of elections, Chirac received less than 20% of the vote, the smallest "winning" percentage in the history of France's 5th Republic. Nonetheless, during the second round of elections the French must choose the lesser of two evils and the choice, for most, seems clear.

Mr. Le Pen's normal May Day march was replaced this year with a counter-demonstration/campaign rally that attracted about 10,000 supporters, although Le Pen claims there were 70,000.

Discuss in my forum