TheWorldJournal.com

French Deception
By Jean-Francois Numainville, TheWorldJournal.com

A shockwave of consternation hit France when the result of the presidential election when out, confirming the collapse of the central-left candidate Lionel Jospin (with 16,18% of the votes) who couldn't beat extreme-right candidate Jean-Marie Le pen (16,86%) and actual President Jacques Chirac (19,88%). This result came in total surprise because no polls taken during the campaign came anywhere close to the official results. Because no candidate managed to get the absolute majority, a second and final round will be held on May 5. What explains this turnaround from the Front National (Le Pen's extremist party) on Election Day is the unusually high rate of abstention (about 28%) and the large number of socialists candidates which spread the vote and allowed the Front National to make its way through the final round of the presidential elections.

Crowds of protesters, mostly composed of students, flooded the streets of France after the release of the result proclaiming anti-extremism slogans and uttering their discuss and shame and the idea of Le Pen being illegible to become the most powerful man in France. Many sanctions were adopted when the same situation broke out in Austria two years ago (Jörd Haider came second in presidential election), including the temporally exclusion of the country from the European parliament. For the moment, foreign affairs representatives from most of the occidental countries have expressed their concerns regarding the new political balance of Europe's second largest economic power.

Le Pen's Front National party is putting forward an electoral platform aiming mainly at "restoring the greatness of France". The organization founded in 1972 is in favor of isolating the country from outside influences which it judges unhealthy: If the Front National reaches the direction of France, it will retract the country from the European union, while replacing the Euro by the old Franc as the national currency. But the National Front does not stop there, it consider that immigration is the main factor that causes France's current economical and social problems, thus the country will no longer welcome outsiders following the election of the Front National.

Le Pen's slogan, "France for the French". has attracted about 6 million persons to give them their confidence in the first round of the elections, mostly because they are tired of the inaction of the government to stop the growth of violent crimes and racial tensions that mined the social climate in the last 10 years. In deed, ever since the mid 1980's the France has been in a transition between a heavily government-controlled economy and the actual context of international competition from opened and deregulated world economies. The most logical explanation to France's actual problems can be found in its health system, social welfare compensations, work regulations which are too money-consuming meaning the country has become less productive economically. For example, last year France decided to reduce the legal workweek to 35 hours, bringing down the production capacity of the country's corporations. All of those factors combined are discouraging hiring and are showing in the unemployment rate, which is around 10%. 2 months ago, the European commission revealed that France's GDP per capita was second to last (Greece came in the last position) in all the countries inside the economic union.

Moreover, massive immigration from the middle-east and northern Africa lead to social tensions caused by the misintegration of the new comers whom were confined to low paying jobs and substandard housings in ghettos throughout France.

The result of the final round of the presidential election will be known in the evening of may 5, while the reelection of Jacques Chirac leaves little doubts, it remains to see if the frustrations of the people of France will lead to another embarrassing good performance for Le Pen.

© April 24, 2002