Le Pen Confident of Winning Over 30 Percent of Votes in Run-off

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 26, 2002

Le Pen Confident of Winning Over 30 Percent of Votes in Run-off

French far-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen said Thursday that he is confident in getting more than 30 percent of the votes in the second round of voting on May 5.

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French far-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen said Thursday that he is confident in getting more than 30 percent of the votes in the second round of voting on May 5.

"I am sure that I will get much more than 30 percent," said Le Pen at French television LCI, "Below 30 percent, It will not be a success."

In the first round on Sunday, Le Pen got 16.98 percent of the ballots. Another far-right candidate Bruno Megret who got 2.35 percent has called on his supporters to turn their votes to Le Pen in the run-off.

A majority of the 14 eliminated candidates have called on the French voters to stand behind conservative candidate President Jacques Chirac in the second round. Opinion polls forecast a landslide victory for Chirac with around 80 percent of the votes.

During the interview, Le Pen described the nationwide demonstrations against him as being "meticulously organized" and accused Chirac of "violating all obligations as head of justice, of the armed forces and of State" during the past seven years.

Le Pen promised to run France by referendums if he were elected president. He would organize one referendum each year, on exclusion of immigrants, re-establishment of death penalty, economic protectionism, family status and defense of life in his five-year term.

When asked whether he will resign if the French people reject his proposal in the referendum, he said: "No. Certainly no."

When asked about his plan to deport illegal immigrants, the far- right candidate said he will set up "transit camps."

"It is a difficulty to be resolved," said Le Pen when asked to which country he will deport the immigrants.

"If camps are necessary, we will set up camps of transit where they (immigrants) will wait in a relatively comfortable situation before returning to their countries," he said.

All foreign jobless in France will be deported "in a human and progressive way," he said.

"When there is a tissue of foreign cities in our country, there will be no French independence. We can say there will be no France, " said Le Pen.

Backgrounder: Le Pen Convicted Several Times

During his four-decade political career, French extreme-right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen was repeatedly brought to justice for anti-Semitic and racist remarks and physically attacking people he disliked.

In the early 1970s, together with a former Waffen SS member, Le Pen set up a small publishing house dealing in old songs and speeches. In 1971, He was convicted guilty of "apologies for war crimes" by a French court.

On the package of disks he produced, it was written "the rising to power of Adolf Hitler and of the national-socialist was characterized by a strong mass movement, which was popular and democratic..."

On March 11, 1986, the tribunal of Aubervilliers in northern Paris condemned Le Pen for "insidious anti-Semitism" when he dedicated a racist and anti-Semitic gathering to four French journalists of Jewish origin.

On November 16, 1987, the notorious racist and xenophobic hustler was sentenced twice for remarks of "provocation of racial discrimination, hate and violence."

On December 18, 1991, Le Pen was fined 100,000 francs in damages for his remarks made in 1987 that the Nazi gas-chamber was "but a detail of World War II history." Le Pen reiterated the rhetoric 10 years later in Munich and was condemned to a one-franc symbolic fine.

In 1993, he was fined 10,000 franc for insulting a former minister.

Earlier in April this year, Le Pen was fined 1,000 euro for vilification against Bruno Megret, his former colleague and apparent heir who split from the FN and set up his own far-right party years ago.

On immigrants, Le Pen had talked about France being invaded by North African Arabs, black Africans and Asians before recently turning to a less sulfurous tone about "the very excessive number of foreigners."

During his campaign, he promised to deport all illegal immigrants as well as all immigrants in French jail and rewrite the first article of the French Constitution to give "national preference" in all fields from employment, housing to family subvention.

In Monday's speech following his startling triumph in the first round of presidential vote, Le Pen pledged that once elected, he will make France quit the European Union (EU) and restore franc as national currency.

Le Pen was also famous for resorting to physical brutality at his pleasure. He once kicked a young protester during a rally. In April 1987, the 69-year-old FN president punched a female Socialist rival at Mantes-la-Jolie on the west suburb of Paris.

Despite efforts from many people trying to stop him, Le Pen chased the lady who was in her 40s, pushed her to a wall, shouted injuries and gave her heavy punches. He left in smile, murmuring: "It (the punch) made me feel much younger."

He was deprived of parliamentarian status and voter's rights following the event.

Days following Sunday's voting, several French televisions replayed tape of these acts and French daily Le Monde ran a picture of the punching.

Canal+, a pay television in France, on Tuesday interviewed Pierrette Lalanne, who divorced Le Pen after a decade-long marriage and reaffirmed that her former husband was a violent racist, anti-Semitist and liar.

When asked "What will you do if Le Pen were elected president of France?" Lalanne answered: "I will go abroad."

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