These words by Chirac are unreal for a president>
A confident Jean-Marie Le Pen told France "I'll win" presidential elections after conservative head of state Jacques Chirac launched a stinging attack on the extreme-right challenger and his "brutal" solutions.
Street protests against Le Pen took place across France for the second day in a row, gathering a total of more than 90,000 people each time. Another demonstration was building in Paris late Tuesday, succeeding two other night marches that have ended in violence.
"France is confronted with a grave situation. What is at stake is its soul, its cohesion, its role in Europe and the world," Chirac told a crowd of 7,000 supporters in the northwestern city of Rennes.
Launching his campaign for round two of the election on May 5, Chirac, 69, also unleashed a blistering attack on Le Pen, 73, whom he accused of "brandishing the threat of the street, and waving the spectres of brute force, of the irrational, of contempt."
And he said he would refuse to take part in a planned televised debate with the National Front leader.
"In the face of intolerance and hate, no dealing is possible, no compromise is possible, no debate is possible," he said to loud cheers in the hangar of an exhibition centre outside the city.
Le Pen shot back on state-run France 2 television that the refusal was "an intolerable, inadmissable attack on the rules of democracy, and the fact that it comes from the president... is a scandal."
He was in part backed by an opinion survey, released by the CSA firm, which showed seven out of 10 French people wanted to see a debate between the two.
He also claimed that the protests against him, which are planned to carry on to May 5, involved only "a handful" of people.
And he predicted he would win the run-off in the same way he shocked France by finishing second in the presidential first round election last Sunday.
"There will be just as big a surprise May 5 as there was on Sunday," he said.
"It's a combat for France. I'll take it to the end. And I'll win."
Le Pen, a brash ex-paratrooper, added that, if that happened, his first act would be a referendum on cutting France's ties with the European Union.
He would then bring back the franc, restore border controls, deport illegal immigrants, make the French work longer hours, impose discipline in schools, and phase out income tax.
But with the Socialist party promising to rally behind Chirac after its candidate Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, 64, was knocked out on Sunday, the incumbent president is practically assured of winning a new five-year term.
Chirac used his Rennes address to appeal for as large a majority as possible in order to wipe out the embarrassment of Le Pen's first round success.
"In belonging to the French nation we are all united by our rejection of extremism, of racism, of anti-Semitism and of xenophobia. We all reject the simplistic brutal solutions that will always lead one day to the violence of the state," he said.
And in an attack on Le Pen's declared aim of taking France out of the European Union, Chirac said France would never leave Europe, "because Europe is peace, Europe is democracy, Europe is liberty, Europe is prosperity."
Among the enthusiastic audience were leading figures of the centrist parties Liberal Democracy (DL) and the Union for French Democracy (UDF), which Chirac's Gaullists are hoping to bring into a broad pro-Chirac coalition in time for the crucial parliamentary elections that take place in June.
With victory almost certain in the presidential election, the right is hoping to capitalise on the sense of crisis prevailing since Le Pen's breakthrough to win a clear majority in the National Assembly and push through institutional and economic reforms.
According to Chirac, the thrust of his programme will be to clamp down on crime, and reduce the economic constraints that he says are hampering France's international competitivity.
Once elected he promised to nominate a minister of security, introduce new criminal justice laws, reduce income tax for 2002 by five percent, cut the social charges paid by employers and take steps to make more flexible the 35 hour working week.
He also promised to modernise the administration and devolve more powers to France's regions.
He ended with an appeal for national unity, embracing both the left -- now with no candidate in the election -- and Le Pen's first round supporters.
"Many are those on the left who must feel like orphans of the democratic debate. And other French men and women who just wanted to make known their anger and the difficulties of their lives must be troubled by a result they never intended.
"To all I say that solutions do exist. A great future beckons for France, Chirac said. |
