Massive Anti-Le Pen Demonstrations Continue in French Cities

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Massive Anti-Le Pen Demonstrations Continue in French Cities

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Massive demonstrations continued Monday in more than 20 cities across France to protest against far- rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen who emerged as one of the two finalists in Sunday's first-round presidential election.

More than 30,000 high school and university students staged rallies and sit-ins in French major cities under slogans such as " Le Pen Is Fascist", "Le Pen Out" and "We Are All Children of Immigrants," reported French televisions.

Le Pen will run against incumbent conservative President Jacques Chirac in the second round on May 5. He got 16.96 percent of the ballots on Sunday, second to Chirac (19.88 percent) but ahead of Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (16.18 percent) who was eliminated from the race.

The demonstrations started spontaneously soon after the results were announced on Sunday evening. It is the first time in the French history that a rightist extremist enters the runoff of a presidential election.

However, the presence of the far right kept growing in the past three decades in France. The anti-immigration and anti-Europe Le Pen saw his presidential share increase from 0.76 percent in 1974, to 14.61 percent in 1988 and 15.27 percent in 1995 before hitting nearly 17 percent this year.

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