Far Rightist Le Pen Attacks Chirac, Refuses to Announce Endorsement
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1) Far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who emerged from the first-round of presidential elections as kingmaker, told a rally Monday that the two remaining contenders represent a ``detestable'' choice and refused to tell followers how to vote May 7.
2) Hours earlier, as Le Pen led a march across Paris, three skinheads attacked a 29-year-old Moroccan. He fell into the Seine and drowned, police said. The skinheads reportedly melted into the crowd of thousands of marchers. There have been no arrests.
3) Le Pen said later on French radio that the incident ``was in no way connected'' with his march and rally.
4) Le Pen's anti-immigration National Front party is often accused of racism and anti-semitism and has in the past attracted skinheads in jack boots and shaved heads to rallies. A young Comoran was killed during campaigning by a man hanging election posters for the National Front in Marseille, sending the party into more controversy.
5) ``It's true that every time our security services have to defend themselves against raids by some skinheads or red skins, that is, communist skinheads,'' Le Pen said.
6) Le Pen said he was made aware of the incident about 1 p.m., which is when he finished his speech to a crowd of some 15,000 in front of the Paris Opera house.
7) Police sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the skinheads apparently were marching in the National Front's traditional homage to Joan of Arc. They reportedly left the march and got into an altercation with the Moroccan who was pushed into the water. The River Brigade retrieved the body.
8) At the rally, Le Pen told followers to vote according to their consciences. He said he would make his own choice known Wednesday, a day after Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, the conservative candidate, and Socialist Lionel Jospin hold their televised debate.
9) ``The choice offered us is detestable,'' Le Pen said in an hour-long speech that followed a march through Paris to honor Joan of Arc, the patron saint of the anti-immigration National Front party. ``Chirac for us is Jospin, only worse.''
10) He said Chirac had sold out the nation in his backing for the Maastricht Treaty of European union, the world trade talks and through various measures that penalized the people and raised unemployment when Chirac served twice as prime minister in the 1970s and 1980s.
11) ``Jacques Chirac, have you not betrayed your people? .... Is it any different for Lionel Jospin?''
12) Both Chirac and Jospin need votes from the National Front, and each has made indirect appeals to ``protest voters'' who backed Le Pen but, the candidates say, do not back his views. Polls show Chirac favored to win but with only a 10-point lead. The large number of undecided voters could determine the outcome.
13) Le Pen addressed a colorful, fervent, flag-waving crowd of young and old that included a large contingent of war veterans.
14) Flanked by horsemen in knights' costumes, they had marched from St. German Des Pres, on the Left Bank across the Seine river to the Opera, pausing at the gold statue of Joan of Arc, the 15th century nationalist burned at the stake by British invaders.
15) ``Le Pen is our chief. It's he who speaks the truth,' said Raymond Chevalier, a 64-year-old veteran from Lyon.
16) Many sympathizers said they would wait to see how Le Pen decides to vote before choosing, or issue a blank vote of protest.
17) For the National Front, ``the future starts tomorrow,'' Le Pen said referring to June municipal elections. The party hopes to translate Le Pen's record 15 percent score in the April 23 first-round presidential vote into a major presence in the cities and towns of France.
18) Le Pen demanded respect for his followers. With his score, ``the millions of National Front voters can no longer be despised, excluded, insulted ... by those sitting on their coffers of dirty money,'' Le Pen told a cheering crowd. ``We demand respect.''
19) Le Pen has recently tried to portray his party as patriotic and nationalist to undo the stigma attached to the label of extreme right.
20) ``The National Front is not a party of the right. It is the party of France,'' Le Pen said, leading the crowd in the national anthem at the close of his speech.
21) As Le Pen began his speech, a white banner reading ``No To Racism. No To Facism'' was flung from an apartment window facing the podium. Minutes later, a huge yellow banner with the same inscription dropped by masked climbers on the roof of the Opera building, unraveled behind him. They were quickly removed.
22) Le Pen, whose party flourished under the Socialists, last week praised Jospin as a ``respectable man.'' In his speech Monday, he made clear without saying so that Jospin was preferable to Chirac.
23) Jospin has made clear he would introduce proportional voting that favors smaller parties like the National Front, if elected, but has said that would not happen before the June municipal elections.


Le Pen Stays Silent on How to Vote As New Controversy Erupts Eds: AMs. Rewrites thruout; new photos available
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1) France's far-right leader, a kingmaker in next week's presidential election, refused to endorse either candidate Monday, clearly hoping to extract on-the-air promises during a televised debate.
2) Le Pen told some 15,000 followers awaiting instructions for the May 7 vote that conservative candidate Jacques Chirac was the same as Socialist Lionel Jospin, ``only worse.''
3) While clearly favoring Jospin, Le Pen told followers to decide for themselves, and said he would announce his own choice Wednesday, a day after the debate.
4) Le Pen got a record 15 percent in the April 23 first round, giving political legitimacy to his anti-immigration party, the National Front, often shadowed by scandal.
5) That was the case Monday.
6) The rally, preceded by a march across Paris to honor Joan of Arc, the party's patron saint, ended in controversy when police reported the drowning of a Moroccan man, reportedly pushed into the Seine by skinheads who may have been in the cortege and melted back in to escape.
7) Le Pen told French radio that police said the drowning was ``in no way connected'' with the National Front.
8) But Socialist lawmaker Julien Dray demanded parliament decide whether the National Front has a right to exist ``as a legal political party.'' The anti-racism group SOS-Racism demanded the party be forbidden demonstration rights.
9) The Socialist Party said the victim, Brahim Bourham, 29, was ``assassinated by a discourse of hate and intolerance,'' an allusion to Le Pen's party.
10) Chirac, mayor of Paris, expressed his indignation without making a direct reference to Le Pen.
11) Le Pen and his party are accused of racism and anti-semitism. A young Comoran was killed during campaigning by a man hanging election posters for the National Front in Marseille. Le Pen rallies often attract skinheads in jack boots and shaved heads.
12) The drowning underscored the conundrum facing the candidates: both Chirac, favored to win, and Jospin need Le Pen's voters. But an endorsement by the National Front could also be the kiss of death, alienating mainstream supporters on left and right.
13) At Monday's rally, the crowd ranged from young to old, with a contingent of war veterans and even a flag-waving nun.
14) Most express concern about France's 12.2 percent unemployment rate, blaming it largely on immigrants stealing jobs.
15) Le Pen said he would give the two candidates ``a last chance.''
16) ``I'm waiting for a moment of truth. Politicians aren't machines,'' Le Pen said later in a television interview. He added that ``it is no secret. Chirac wants to eliminate the National Front.''
17) Many followers were likely to await Le Pen's decision. Some said they would cast a blank ballot.
18) Le Pen cast a blank ballot in the 1988 presidential election to try to block Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, now 78 and ailing, from a second seven-year term.
19) Le Pen, a tactician trying to nurse his anti-immigration National Front party into the mainstream, lambasted Chirac in his hour-long speech.
20) ``For us, let's say it clearly, Chirac is Jospin, only worse.''
21) Le Pen said Chirac seeks to eliminate the National Front.
22) Jospin has come out firmly in favor of Le Pen's chief demand: restoring the proportional voting system that favors smaller parties. Jospin has said that, if elected, he would do so in time for June municipal elections.
23) ``For us, the future begins tomorrow,'' Le Pen said of the June vote which could give the party a strong foothold in towns and cities around France.
24) Le Pen demanded respect for his followers, sometimes ``treated like Nazis.''
25) With his first-round showing, ``the millions of National Front voters can no longer be despised, excluded, insulted ... by those sitting on their coffers of dirty money,'' Le Pen told the cheering crowd. ``We demand respect.''
26) Le Pen has increasingly tried to reinvent his party's image, portraying followers as patriots to undo the stigma attached to the extreme right.
27) ``The National Front is not a party of the right. It is the party of France,'' Le Pen said.
28) Flanked by horsemen in knights' costumes, Le Pen marched from St. German des Pres, on the Left Bank to the Opera across the Seine, pausing at the gold statue of Joan of Arc, the 15th century symbol of French resistance burned at the stake by British invaders.
29) As Le Pen began his speech, two banners reading ``No To Racism. No To Facism'' were flung from an apartment window and from the top of the Opera building.
30) ``The riff-raff demonstrates. The people think,'' said Le Pen in response.


Far-Right Leader Complains of Witch Hunt Amid Outrage Over Death AP Photos planned
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1) Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed Tuesday his National Front was the victim of a witch hunt as outrage intensified over the drowning of a Moroccan during a march by front supporters.
2) Across the political spectrum, from mainstream conservatives to the far left, Monday's death was blamed on the anti-immigrant rhetoric favored by Le Pen and his party.
3) Police, citing witnesses, said about 10 skinheads taking part in the 10,000-strong National Front march broke away from the crowd and headed for the banks of the Seine. Three of them reportedly pushed Brahim Bourram, 29, into the river, where he drowned.
4) As of Tuesday afternoon, no arrests had been made.
5) Le Pen said he was the ``victim of a provocation'' aimed at discrediting his party.
6) ``A witch hunt has once again been mounted against this movement at a crossroads in the existence,'' Le Pen told a news conference. He contended that the assailants were ``external elements'' not linked to the National Front, and said organizers of his rally had sought to keep skinheads out of the march.
7) Le Pen said the drowning was ``in no way connected'' with his party's annual homage to Joan of Arc, a march across Paris followed by a rally. The front's supporters were celebrating its record 15 percent showing April 23 in the first round of France's presidential elections.
8) The two finalists in Sunday's runoff _ conservative Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac and Socialist Lionel Jospin _ spent the day resting before their nationally televised debate Tuesday night.
9) But the drowning, and the issue of National Front responsibility, was likely to force its way into the debate.
10) Jospin issued a statement denouncing ``the danger of hateful speech,'' and the Socialist Party called on its supporters to join an anti-racism march in Paris on Wednesday.
11) Moroccan Ambassador Mohamed Berrada condemned the ``climate of intolerance at the origin of such acts'' as the attack on Bourram
12) Jospin led the nine-candidate first round with 23.3 percent of the votes, but Chirac _ second with 20.8 percent _ is favored in the runoff because about 60 percent of the voters supported right-of-center candidates.
13) However, Le Pen _ a bitter enemy of Chirac _ has refused to endorse the conservative, telling supporters Monday that the Paris mayor ``is worse than Jospin.''
14) The statue of Joan of Arc, at the site of Le Pen's rally, was smeared overnight with graffiti against the National Front, likening the party to the Nazi SS.


Nearly 30 Detained In Connection With Moroccan's Death EDS: UPDATES with march ending, ADDS Le Pen comment, anti-Le Pen
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1) Police cracked down on Paris-area skinheads Wednesday, detaining 29 people for questioning about the drowning of a Moroccan immigrant pushed into the Seine during a march by thousands of far-right supporters.
2) The death has provoked outrage across the political spectrum as France readies for its presidential runoff election Sunday. In a dramatic gesture following his last regular Cabinet meeting, outgoing President Francois Mitterrand, 78, went to the bridge from which the Moroccan was pushed to pay homage and show his opposition to racism.
3) Police officers made coordinated arrests shortly before daybreak in Paris and the surrounding region, authorities said. There was no immediate word whether any of those in custody would be charged or how long they would be held.
4) The Moroccan, 29-year-old Brahim Bouarram, was accosted by three skinheads Monday during a march through Paris by about 15,000 supporters of the far-right National Front. Bouarram was pushed into the river, and his body later was retrieved by police divers.
5) Witnesses said the assailants, after attacking Bouarram, mingled back into the throng of marchers.
6) National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen said his party, which advocates the deportation of 3 million immigrants, bore no responsibility for the death and blamed police for inadequate security during the march.
7) ``There are people, sorcerers' apprentices, who are transforming this, alas, commonplace episode of racism into a national incident,'' Le Pen said in a television interview.
8) But politicians from the mainstream right to the far left insisted that the racist and anti-foreigner overtones of National Front rhetoric played a role in the incident.
9) Leftist political parties, trade unions and anti-racism groups organized a march Wednesday evening in Paris to protest the death. The march concluded without incident.
10) The front runner in Sunday's presidential runoff, conservative Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, sent a delegation from his campaign to the march, as did the Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin.
11) About 500 people held an anti-Le Pen rally in the southwestern city of Toulouse.
12) Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, sponsor of controversial 1993 laws cracking down on illegal immigration, said through a spokesman that the death of Bouarram was ``unworthy of a democracy like ours.''
13) ``All men and women on French soil, whatever their skin color or religion, have the right to live in complete safety,'' the statement said. ``The combat against racism must transcend political parties. It is not a combat of the left or the right.''
14) Le Pen, whose party won a record 15 percent of the vote in first-round presidential voting April 23, told his followers Monday he could not recommend a vote in the runoff either for Chirac or Jospin. He added Wednesday that he would cast a blank ballot on Sunday.


Le Pen calls for president to resign if majority loses elections Eds: UPDATES with more of Le Pen's speech, commemoration of
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1) France's far-right leader said Thursday that President Jacques Chirac should follow the example of Charles de Gaulle and resign if his conservative majority loses legislative elections.
2) Jean-Marie Le Pen spoke at his National Front party's traditional May Day march used by the far-right to honor Joan of Arc.
3) An estimated 8,000 people attended the peaceful march from Chatelet, near City Hall, to the Garnier Opera house, according to police.
4) Two years ago, a Moroccan was drowned in the Seine River by skin heads who latched on to the National Front's May Day march. The party wants to expel immigrants, claiming they are at the root of France's economic and social ills.
5) Marchers, waving flags and banners, threw flowers at the foot of the gilded statue of Jean of Arc, the party's patron saint, as they passed by on the rue de Rivoli.
6) Le Pen, a fiery orator, derided Chirac in a nearly 90-minute speech in front of the ornate opera house in the center of Paris.
7) ``You have been the artisan of anti-social, anti-family and anti-moral policies,'' Le Pen said. With his decision to dissolve the National Assembly, Chirac was seeking a ``blank check'' for his policies, Le Pen claimed. ``That, sir, never.''
8) ``If Chirac's candidates have less than a majority, then they should leave, as Charles de Gaulle did with dignity in 1969,'' Le Pen said.
9) His remarks came a day after Le Pen's announcement that he would not take part in legislative elections because he was saving himself for an eventual candidacy for the presidency. Le Pen, whose anti-immigration party is often accused of being racist, polled 15 percent in 1995 presidential elections.
10) Le Pen's party, however, is fielding its largest number of candidates ever in a bid to win parliamentary seats. He predicted Wednesday his party would win ``between zero and 20 seats.'' Polls show it could win one or two.
11) Meanwhile, across the Seine, on the Carousel bridge a small ceremony was held in the memory of a young Moroccan drowned in 1995 by skin heads on the coat tails of Le Pen's parade. Le Pen contended the skin heads had no connection to his party's demonstration.
12) The early parliamentary, 6th graf pvs


Extreme right's Le Pen to face Chirac after stunning upset; Jospin
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1) The leader of France's resurgent extreme right called on mainstream voters to join him as he faces incumbent Jacques Chirac for the presidency, following a stunning finish in the first round that shook the political establishment and sent protesters into the streets.
2) Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, disqualified after placing third in Sunday's first-round vote, called the performance of Jean-Marie Le Pen a ``thunderbolt,'' and announced his retirement from politics.
3) Le Pen's second-place showing is a ``very disturbing sign for France and for our democracy,'' Jospin said, choking back emotion.
4) Le Pen, 73, leader of the anti-immigration National Front, called his score a step in ``the French renaissance,'' to be completed with a second-round victory on May 5.
5) Eyeing the runoff, the National Front leader made a broad appeal to the French, ``whatever their race, their religion or their social condition, to rally to this historic chance for national recovery''
6) The silver-haired Le Pen, a former paratrooper now in his fourth presidential race, has been a fixture in French politics for decades. But few could imagine that he would reach the final round in the contest for the country's top office. He is to hold a news conference later Monday.
7) Scores of polls leading up to the vote consistently showed the conservative Chirac, 69, and the Socialist Jospin, 64, taking the top two slots. Only recently did Le Pen even solidly emerge as the so-called third man, the kingmaker.
8) With more than 99 percent of the vote counted, Chirac had 19.7 percent, Le Pen 17.06 percent and Jospin 16.05 percent, according to the Interior Ministry.
9) The three men were among a record field of 16 candidates. The abstention rate of some 28 percent also was a record, Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant said. Both were likely contributing factors to Le Pen's success.
10) Shock was also reflected in French newspapers, with the leftist Liberation newspaper's front page showing a photo of Le Pen with an enormous one-word headline: ``No.'' Conservative Le Figaro's headline read, ``The earthquake.''
11) Voter apathy and the fragmented field punished Jospin and rewarded Le Pen, boosting him beyond the 15 percent that he and his party traditionally score in national elections.
12) Rising crime and the central role it took in the campaign appeared to be another factor in Le Pen's success.
13) Chirac put public insecurity at the top of his campaign platform. At a campaign meeting, he referred to the massacre in late March of eight suburban city council members by a deranged gunman as an example of the left's failure to address rising crime.
14) Vaillant, commenting on the election result, denounced what he called fear tactics _ without mentioning Chirac _ that played into the hands of Le Pen, whose party blames urban violence on immigrants.
15) Le Pen has long been accused of racism and anti-Semitism. He is notorious for having called Nazi gas chambers ``a detail'' of history in 1987 _ a remark for which he was fined in court, one of several convictions. Le Pen denies he is anti-Semitic.
16) An estimated 10,000 people gathered in Paris early Monday morning to protest Le Pen's showing to cries of ``We are all the children of immigrants'' or ``Down with the National Front.''
17) Violence tinged the peaceful protest as a few thousand broke away, apparently marching toward the presidential Elysee Palace, and confronted riot police lobbing tear gas at the Place de la Concorde. The huge window of the famed restaurant Maxim's was smashed. Several hundred protesters then rampaged on a Left Bank boulevard, smashing some bus stops and shop windows. Police arrested several dozen people.
18) Demonstrators gathered in other cities, from Marseille in the south, to Lille in the north, to Strasbourg in the east.
19) The Union of Jewish students in France called for a rally on Monday outside the historic Pantheon in Paris to denounce ``intolerance, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia.''
20) Le Pen, who founded the National Front in 1972 and uses ``French first'' as his slogan, has struck a chord among voters who fear that the French identity is being sacrificed to immigration, particularly Muslims from Africa. He blames immigrants for urban violence and unemployment, and refers to himself as a simple patriot.
21) Champagne bottles stayed corked at Chirac's campaign headquarters as a somber president called for national unity.
22) ``I call on all French men and women to gather to defend human rights,'' Chirac said in a brief speech. ``At risk is our national cohesion, the values of the Republic.
23) ``France needs you, and I need you.''
24) Defeated candidates, one after another, put out calls for followers to vote for Chirac in the second round to stop Le Pen. ``France must not be abandoned to the National Front,'' said candidate Jean-Pierre Chevenement, who once served as interior and defense minister.
25) Several polls conducted as results came in showed that Chirac would win by a wide margin on May 5.
26) Le Pen had only narrowly qualified for the presidential race, scrambling for the 500 endorsements from elected officials needed to run. His party all but imploded in 1998 when top lieutenant Bruno Megret left in a nasty public quarrel and formed his own movement.
27) Megret, too, was a presidential candidate Sunday, getting nearly 2.4 percent of the vote. Together with Le Pen, that meant that the extreme right garnered almost as many votes as Chirac.
28) Calling the results a ``veritable cataclysm,'' Finance Minister Laurent Fabius, a Socialist, said Le Pen's path must be blocked in the second round.
29) ``I think that tonight there are lots of people crying,'' he said. ``This is not the France that we love.''


Protests against far-right candidate continue throughout France Eds: UPDATES graf 6 that LCI television reporting 200,000
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1) More than 100,000 protesters, including many young people, marched through Paris and other major French cities on Saturday in a continuing show of anger at far-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen's surprise success in the primary election.
2) In the capital, protesters chanted ``Down with the National Front'' _ Le Pen's nationalist, anti-immigration party. Some beat on drums as they headed toward the site of the former Bastille prison. One protester held up a sign that read, simply, ``I'm ashamed.''
3) Protesters have taken to the streets every day for a week, since voters, stunned, learned that Le Pen would face incumbent President Jacques Chirac in the May 5 runoff. The culmination is expected to come Wednesday, when Le Pen's supporters and foes hold rival demonstrations.
4) Meeting with young National Front members on Saturday, Le Pen warned them to be careful during the annual May Day march in Paris, which honors Joan of Arc, his party's heroine.
5) ``It's very likely people will try to provoke us,'' Le Pen told 100 young people at his headquarters outside Paris, asking them to be ``extremely vigilant.''
6) About 125,000 anti-Le Pen demonstrators marched throughout France on Saturday, based on a count established from police figures. LCI television put the number at 200,000. A protest in Alpine Grenoble drew 20,000, police said, while 15,000 gathered in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille. Some 45,000 people marched in Paris.
7) About 60 organizations called the demonstrations, including the Communist Party, the League for Human Rights, the CGT union and high school associations.
8) High schoolers and university students have been very active in the week's protests. Tarik Fadili, 17, marched in the capital alongside other students.
9) ``We immigrants are afraid,'' said Fadili, who came to France from Morocco at age six. ``For Le Pen to be in the second round means that a good part of France thinks the same as he does. It makes me sick.''
10) At the head of the Paris demonstration was a group of about 1,000 immigrants who have been marching across France since March 23 to demand papers. They cried out, ``I'm here, I'm staying, I won't leave.''
11) Some 2,000 police were deployed in the French capital alone, as officials feared there could be sporadic violence. The demonstration was calm, however, with many children marching alongside their parents.
12) ``We want a France where we can live freely,'' said Sylvie Wolf, a nurse, who pushed a buggy with her 4-year-old child inside.
13) Some French celebrities joined the protest, including actresses Isabelle Adjani and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, a Socialist, also took part.
14) The first protests against Le Pen erupted spontaneously on April 21, just hours after results of the first round showed the far-right leader had come in second after Chirac. For months, polls had forecast that the two top candidates would be conservative Chirac and the Socialist Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin.
15) The night of the first round, a few violent incidents broke out, with protesters smashing shop windows. Police retaliated with tear gas and made several dozen arrests.
16) Of the daily protests, Thursday's was the largest, with about 300,000 people in the streets across France.
17) If elected, Le Pen says he will try to cut France's ties with the European Union, restore border controls to limit immigration and phase out income taxes. He opposes abortion, supports the death penalty and has often been accused of being anti-Semitic.
18) Most of France's defeated presidential candidates have come out in support of Chirac, and polls have indicated the incumbent leader should get about 80 percent of the final-round vote.
19) Le Pen has told voters not to put faith in the polls.
20) ``Thirty percent of the vote on May 5 would be a bitter defeat for me,'' Le Pen was quoted as saying in Le Monde newspaper's weekend edition. ``I'm fighting for more than that. I'm targeting between 40 and 51 percent, and preferably 51 percent.''


France braces for May Day street protests against Le Pen amid fears
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1) France braced for a wave of massive street protests against extreme-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen during Wednesday's traditional May Day march, while his rival in the voting, incumbent President Jacques Chirac, called for calm.
2) Organizers of five Paris marches, from unions to human rights groups, predicted that several hundred thousand people could be in the capital's streets in what police have called a high risk day. Marches were planned in some 70 cities around France.
3) ``In a democracy, political action doesn't take place in the streets,'' Chirac, a conservative, said in an interview Tuesday on RTL radio. ``It takes place in the ballot box.'' He called on demonstrators to be ``extremely vigilant, extremely responsible.''
4) France returns to the polls on Sunday for the runoff vote between Chirac, a conservative, and Le Pen, who stunned the country by qualifying for the final vote in the April 21 first round. Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was pushed out of the running.
5) Le Pen was leading supporters in his National Front party's traditional May Day march that in the past has drawn jack-booted skinheads and led to violence.
6) The death of a young Moroccan, drowned in the Seine during the National Front's May Day march in 1995, resurfaced. Three human rights and anti-racist groups dedicated their march Wednesday to the memory of Brahim Bouarram, pushed into the river by skinheads following the National Front march.
7) Some 3,500 security forces, from riot police to plain clothes officers, were being deployed in Paris along with two helicopters, police officials said.
8) ``Nothing would be worse in the current situation, and worse, notably, for the ideas the demonstrators want to defend, than excesses that lead to violence and confrontation,'' Chirac said.
9) Le Pen has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism numerous times. He blames immigration, particularly from Muslim North Africa, for unemployment _ that edged up in March to 9.1 percent _ and for rising crime.
10) On Tuesday, two Le Pen supporters, aged 21 and 17, were jailed in northern Reims for hurling gasoline bombs at a mosque Saturday night in the nearby town of Chalons-en-Champagne. A search of the assailants' homes produced literature from Le Pen's National Front party and swastikas, police said. The mosque suffered minor damage.
11) Le Pen, who sees himself as the defender of France's identity in a globalized world, wants to pull France out of the European Union and return to the franc, the currency abandoned in favor of the euro.
12) ``I'm just the thermometer of the political malady of France,'' Le Pen said in an interview on RMC-Info radio Tuesday.
13) German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder cautioned the European Commission on Monday night against moving too quickly with change. He suggested this could create a backlash and play into the hands of the extreme-right.
14) ``I have made clear that we need to have this discussion,'' Schroeder said after a dinner in Brussels with EC President Romano Prodi.
15) Schroeder, facing his own election in September, has complained recently that several EU policy initiatives amount to undue interference in national affairs.
16) In France, the Wednesday demonstrations culminate a series of almost daily anti-Le Pen protests. Tens of thousands of high school students cut classes to demonstrate Monday.
17) ``Let's March'' read the banner headline Tuesday in the leftist daily Liberation. ``May 1 for History,'' read the headline in France Soir.
18) Numerous political parties, artists and sports figures have called for a vote for Chirac to block Le Pen on Sunday. The Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday it was supporting Chirac, saying research needs ``total freedom of thought.''
19) On Tuesday night across from the Eiffel Tower, tenor Roberto Alagna led a group of celebrity singers and actors in France's national anthem, the Marseillaise. The gathering, in front of a banner that read: ``Against Le Pen, Vote Chirac,'' drew about 1,000 people.


Rallies against Le Pen draw more than a million people across France
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1) More than a million people turned out in Paris and across France on Wednesday to march against extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, just four days before he faces President Jacques Chirac in a presidential race that has mobilized the country.
2) The marches on the traditional labor holiday of May Day were the culmination of nearly two weeks of public protests following Le Pen's stunning showing in the election's first round.
3) The largest march was in eastern Paris, centered around the Place de la Bastille, site of the revolutionary-era prison that is a symbol of French democracy. At least 400,000 people of all ages and classes of society chanted anti-Le Pen slogans, held up banners, played instruments or beat drums to reggae beats.
4) The demonstrations were largely peaceful, although about 12 people were taken into police custody for allegedly possessing weapons and other minor infractions, authorities said.
5) Late in the day, police were pelted with beer cans and empty bottles as they tried to disperse a crowd of about 150 mostly drunk youths at Place de la Nation in eastern Paris.
6) Elsewhere in France, more than 900,000 others marched in a dozen cities, including Grenoble, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
7) ``Le Pen is a danger to liberty. We just have to block him,'' said Francois Taquet, 48, of Saint Ouen near Paris.
8) Didier Hughes, 56, an economist, called Le Pen ``a fascist, and so dangerous for France that we all must unite.''
9) ``I've not seen this kind of atmosphere on the streets for 30 years,'' he added.
10) The anti-Le Pen rallies came after the far-right leader held a much smaller demonstration in Paris to honor his party's heroine, Joan of Arc.
11) In an annual May Day event that took on added importance this year because of Le Pen's surprise showing, he lay a bouquet of white flowers at a gilded statue of Joan of Arc riding a horse and waving the national flag. For Le Pen's National Front party, the 15th-century peasant girl who led a series of victories against the English is a symbol of French resistance against foreign ``invaders.''
12) In a speech, Le Pen promised an ``electoral earthquake'' in the election's final round, which Chirac is expected to win easily. ``The ground's going to crumble under their feet,'' he said.
13) Police and observers estimated the pro-Le Pen crowd at 10,000 to 12,000 people, though Le Pen's party claimed there were as many as 100,000 marchers.
14) Wednesday, a sunny day in Paris and a national holiday, was the climax of snowballing protests against Le Pen. Last week, in the previous highest turnout, about 350,000 people protested across the nation.
15) Some 3,500 police, from riot police to plainclothes officers, were deployed in Paris alone on Wednesday.
16) At the Bastille, good-natured crowds shouting ``Down with Le Pen!'' packed the square and surrounding side streets. A few people handed out sing-along lyrics mocking the far-right leader.
17) Thousands carried signs calling Le Pen and his National Front party ``Nazis.'' Many signs were emblazoned with the swastika, and some showed Le Pen with a narrow mustache drawn in, to resemble Adolf Hitler.
18) ``Down with the National Front _ N as in Nazi, F as in fascist,'' protesters chanted.
19) Some held up posters of Martin Luther King with the caption: ``Don't Break His Dream.''
20) One demonstrator, 20-year-old Abdoul Fofana, said, ``If Le Pen wins there will be a world war in France.'' Fofana, who came to France from the Ivory Coast 10 years ago, was worried about Le Pen's fiercely anti-immigrant stance.
21) A few May Day protests elsewhere in Europe made reference to Le Pen. Dieter Scholz, a German labor union official, drew applause at a rally of about 10,000 people in front of Berlin city hall when he said: ``Whoever preaches hate and xenophobia has no place in this city, in Germany or in Europe. That is why we declare solidarity with French unions in the campaign against Le Pen.''
22) At the pro-Le Pen demonstration in Paris, Maurice Dumontot, a 58-year-old retired police brigadier, admitted that ``Le Pen is the unloved candidate.''
23) ``But he's our only chance to put things in order to stop all the crime and have people respect our laws,'' he said.
24) A few people showed their anger at Le Pen's parade. One family, standing on a balcony above the marchers, hung out a banner that read, simply, ``No.''
25) On a bridge over the Seine, about 1,000 people honored the memory of a Moroccan man who was drowned by National Front supporters during a rally on May 1, 1995. A group of skinheads at the rally pushed the man, Brahim Bouarram, off the bridge.
26) Le Pen has been convicted of racism or anti-Semitism five times. He blames immigration, particularly from Muslim North Africa, for unemployment _ which edged up in March to 9.1 percent _ and for rising crime. His success in the April 21 first round of elections stunned France and most of its allies and neighbors.
27) The far-right leader wants to pull France out of the European Union and return to the franc, the currency abandoned in favor of the euro at the start of this year, as well as deport all illegal immigrants and tighten border controls.


French unions opposed to pension reform threaten strikes
(APW_ENG_20030418.0219)
1) Several of France's powerful trade unions, unhappy with government proposals to reform the retirement system, on Friday threatened strikes to press a change of course.
2) In a sign of the deteriorating climate, France's most business-friendly union, the CFDT, which in principle agrees on the need for reform, changed its tone and called on workers to mobilize.
3) CFDT chief Francois Chereque said he was disappointed by the government's ``hazy'' proposals after talks Friday with Social Affairs Minister Francois Fillon.
4) ``Until we are given precise answers and figures, the CFDT cannot back the reforms,'' he said.
5) The head of the influential Workers' Force, Marc Blondel, warned the government was intent on ``the destruction of the retirement system'' and urged a general strike.
6) Blondel said he plans to meet with other union leaders to organize ``the largest possible collective reaction, which I believe must be centered on a strike.''
7) A massive public sector walkout earlier this month over reforming the retirement system brought much of France to a halt, hobbling air traffic and stranding Paris commuters. The CFDT did not participate in the April 3 action, but said Friday it would talk with other unions to organize a ``day of action.''
8) Hundreds of thousands of civil servants _ from air traffic controllers, post office and museum employees to subway car drivers and teachers _ stayed off the job April 3.
9) The retirement system needs a drastic overhaul to cope with a growing population of retirees who are also living longer. Reforming the system is one of the main challenges facing the center-right government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. He has said reforms would be ready by summer vacation.
10) One bone of contention centers on the government's efforts to bring retirement programs for private sector employees and civil servants in line.
11) The government has indicated that it wants public sector employees, who generally must work 37.5 years to qualify for full retirement benefits, to work 40 years, like private sector counterparts, to get full retirement.
12) (parf-kh-eg)


Unions agree to day of strikes, demonstrations on May 13 to protest retirement reform
(APW_ENG_20030423.0583)
1) French unions buried differences on Wednesday and joined in calling for a day of strikes and demonstrations on May 13 to press the government to ``modify its choices'' in reforming the retirement system.
2) The unions called on both public and private sector workers to take part in the one-day strike.
3) The joint call to action could prove an ominous signal for center-right Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin as he approaches a year in office.
4) Raffarin has said he is determined to reform the retirement system before it buckles, and has said the measures would be ready by summer vacation.
5) Unions by and large agree that the overloaded system needs to be modified to cope, but reject the government's approach.
6) The decision to strike and march on May 13 came at a meeting of some half-dozen unions and followed a round of talks with the government over reforming the pension plan.
7) Government measures ``are dictated exclusively by the wish to reduce ... expenses,'' a joint statement by the unions said, adding that unions are ``convinced that only the intervention of all salaried workers can (force) the government to modify its choices.''
8) The statement noted that May 1, the traditional Labor Day, also provides an opportunity to demonstrate discontent.
9) Marc Blondel, leader of the Workers' Force union, said he hoped for a ``frank'' and ``tough'' showing from workers.
10) Even the business-friendly CFDT union has joined in the protest call, criticizing the government's ``hazy'' proposals that lack precise figures.
11) The retirement system needs a drastic overhaul to avoid collapse in 20 years. The overburdened system must cope with a growing population of retirees who are also living longer.
12) One bone of contention is the opposition of public sector workers to increasing the number of years they must contribute to the retirement pot from 37.5 to 40, like the private sector.
13) A massive public sector walkout earlier this month over pension reform brought much of France to a halt, hobbling air traffic and stranding Paris commuters.
14) In 1995, protests over pension reforms effectively shut the country down and helped push then-Prime Minister Alain Juppe, a conservative, from office.
15) (parf-eg)


Government stirs anger, strike calls with pension reform plans
(APW_ENG_20030425.0340)
1) The bad news was splashed across newspaper front pages: By 2020, the French could have to work for nearly five years longer to qualify for full pensions.
2) The declaration by Social Affairs Minister Francois Fillon prompted calls for massive strikes and grumblings from politicians and the French press on Friday. But the leading business federation welcomed the proposed reforms to France's overburdened retirement system.
3) ``Fillon sells his potion,'' declared the left-leaning Liberation's front page. ``This time, Fillon said everything,'' added Le Parisien, calling Fillon's plans a ``bitter draft.''
4) The minister said in a television interview Thursday night that to get full retirement benefits, all French employees would have to work for 40 years by 2008, for 41 years by 2012 and for nearly 42 years by 2020.
5) Currently, public sector workers generally must contribute to the retirement pot for 37.5 years and those in the private sector for 40 years to qualify for full pensions.
6) The government argues that without extra financial contributions from workers, the retirement system could collapse because the number of retirees is growing and they are living longer. It says that these demographic forces will lead to a 50 billion euro (US$54 billion) gap in financing of the pension system by 2020.
7) Fillon said the system would be in the red within two or three years. He likened the problem to ``disarming a bomb that threatens future generations.''
8) ``Once we are running deficits, the whole system ... will explode. We will no longer be able to save it,'' he said on France-2 television.
9) Unions responded by repeating calls for strikes May 13 _ and beyond if necessary _ to protest the government's approach.
10) ``There's going to be a reaction from both the public and private sectors,'' Marc Blondel, leader of the Workers' Force union, said Friday.
11) Four of the five teachers unions on Friday backed the May 13 strike call. Train workers' unions also plan a nationwide strike that day, said William La Rocca, head of the FGAAC union.
12) Even the business-friendly CFDT union backed a walkout, ``not to oppose reform but to pressure the government to improve on its proposals,'' said Francois Chereque, the CFDT's secretary general.
13) Bernard Thibault of the Communist Party-linked CGT union denounced ``the abandonment, pure and simple, of the right to go into retirement at age 60.''
14) Opposition lawmaker Noel Mamere said he was ``shocked'' by the plan to make employees work longer.
15) ``By making them labor to age 65, we're squeezing the juice out of those who have already worked,'' he said on Europe-1 radio.
16) He said the government should work instead to bring down France's nearly 10 percent unemployment rate.
17) ``That would be more useful for the country than wanting to make people work longer,'' Mamere said.
18) A massive public sector walkout earlier this month over pension reform brought much of France to a halt, hobbling air traffic and stranding Paris commuters.
19) In 1995, protests over pension reforms effectively shut down the country and helped push then-Prime Minister Alain Juppe, a conservative, from office.
20) (pvs-jl-kh)


French teachers to strike Tuesday
(APW_ENG_20030505.0287)
1) Teachers planned strikes and demonstrations throughout France on Tuesday to protest government plans to streamline the education system and reform pension plans.
2) The protest called by five major unions is to be the fifth national action day since the school year started. Unions were promising heavy turnout, and demonstrations were planned in cities from Caen, in the northwest region of Normandy, down to Nice on the Mediterranean coast.
3) In Paris, teachers were planning an afternoon march to the Education Ministry. In some areas, the strikes could continue beyond Tuesday.
4) A plan by the center-right government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin to reform the education system is one of several measures that have unleashed a wave of social unrest.
5) For months, teachers and others have been protesting budget cutbacks that will affect education support staff.
6) Raffarin wants to combine the responsibilities of school aides who supervise out-of-class activities with those of youths who help out teachers, reducing their ranks by thousands. He also wants to transfer many supporting staff members to other schools as part of a wider plan to decentralize the administration.
7) Other major reform plans _ downsizing the pensions and state security systems _ are also bitterly opposed by unions.
8) The center-right government argues that without extra financial contributions from workers, the retirement system could collapse because the number of retirees is growing and people are living longer.
9) Social Affairs Minister Francois Fillon has proposed that employees spend more years on the job to qualify for full retirement benefits.
10) The issue already sparked a massive public sector walkout last month, shutting down air traffic and stranding Paris commuters.
11) Another major strike on pension reform is planned for May 13 and is expected to draw a range of public sector workers, from teachers and air traffic controllers to public transport workers.
12) (parf-ad-jg)


French public sector employees intensify strike over pension reform
(APW_ENG_20030609.0331)
1) A larger-scale French public sector strike on Tuesday is expected to cause more delays and cancelations for travelers and commuters who already faced a week of disruptions.
2) While some train and public transport workers have stayed off the job since June 4 to protest a government overhaul of the pension system, unions were to intensify the effort Tuesday _ the day parliament starts debating the reforms.
3) Some air traffic controllers also promised to join the walkout. On Monday, the extent of airline disruptions was still unclear.
4) National carrier Air France said it was maintaining its schedule but said there were ``risks of disruptions'' for short- and medium-haul flights _ generally, service within Europe.
5) The SNCF rail authority said one train out of three would run Tuesday in most regions. Paris subway and bus workers were to intensify their movement, slowing down service, while public transport strikes were also expected in cities including Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux.
6) For months, French public sector employees have been pressuring the government to abandon a pension reform plan that officials say is needed to save the system from collapse.
7) Transport workers, led by the Communist-linked CGT, will be joined Tuesday by teachers, postal workers and other state employees. Garbage workers have also been striking in some cities, including Paris, leaving trash in piles on the sidewalk.
8) Some private sector employees were expected to take part, including bank workers and metalworkers. Protest marches were planned in cities from Paris to Bordeaux in the southwestern wine country to the northwest port city of Brest.
9) Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is expected to open the debate on pension reform at the National Assembly.
10) The center-right government's plan would increase the number of years public sector employees must work to receive full retirement benefits from 37.5 years to 40 years. The change would bring them in line with the private sector.
11) Transport workers would not be affected by the change, but they have led the strikes, claiming that the reform plan is just the beginning of a process that would gut France's pension system.
12) While opposing the retirement plan, teachers are also protesting a plan to decentralize the education system. High school seniors across France have been awaiting word on whether the strikes would cancel their crucial end-of-the-year exams.
13) Education Minister Luc Ferry and other Cabinet members were to gather teachers' unions for a round table Tuesday.
14) (parf-ad)


May Day marches in Paris draw thousands, as Le Pen rails against EU enlargement
(APW_ENG_20040501.0300)
1) Anti-immigrant nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen used his traditional May Day rally Saturday to criticize the European Union's expansion, while thousands of workers celebrated the day with more than 250 peaceful demonstrations across France.
2) The leader of France's far-right National Front party dismissed the historic day of EU enlargement _ celebrated Saturday by EU leaders in Dublin _ as a mistake. He said western Europe had nothing to gain from taking in 10 new members from the east.
3) ``Was it wise to go so fast and to want to elevate their standard of living while lowering ours?'' Le Pen told a crowd of 3,000 that attended his Paris rally. ``Will it make us stronger, richer, happier? I think not.''
4) Delivering a strong anti-immigrant message, Le Pen used the speech to launch his campaign for European parliamentary elections in June. Calling on voters to hand him a ``brilliant victory,'' he said his slogan would be ``Europe? Why bother with it?''
5) Le Pen, who has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism at least six times, stunned France by qualifying for a second-round faceoff with French President Jacques Chirac in the presidential race in 2002.
6) On May Day in 1995, skinheads on the sidelines of a National Front rally drowned a Moroccan man in the Seine River. On Saturday, the French human rights group MRAP held a ceremony for the victim, Brahim Bouarram, who was pushed off a bridge.
7) Meanwhile, May Day demonstrations took place around France, with the largest in Paris drawing 14,000 people, police said. Union organizers said 50,000 showed up.
8) A separate, smaller Paris rally led by the Christian CFTC trade union paid tribute to the EU's enlargement. The march, which drew about 1,500 people, was devoted to the theme of European social cohesion, with banners that read: ``Place man at the heart of Europe.''
9) The workers' holiday was dominated by concerns over high unemployment rates and reforms planned by the conservative government to France's indebted health insurance system. Among those who marched were members of France's show business community, the state-run electrical and gas utilities, researchers and teachers _ all of whom have protested in past months against planned reforms that affect their professions.
10) Some 4,000 people marched in the southern cities of Toulouse and Marseille, with a similar turnout in central Lyon. Smaller rallies were held around the country.
11) (parf-jg)