After the electoral results of the National Front, the French Church is urging Catholics to mobilize themselves, says the secretary general of the episcopate The political “earthquake” caused by the electoral success of Jean Marie Le Pen, candidate of the far-right National Front, in the first round of the French presidential elections and his right to contest the second round on 5 May, helped Jacques Chirac to win a landslide victory with 82.1% of the vote cast in his favour and only 17.9% for his adversary. “France has reaffirmed her links with the values of the Republic”, declared the re-elected President, who on the very morning following his re-election appointed Jean-Pierre Raffarin to head an interim government. This government, Chirac explained, will be installed for six weeks only until the forthcoming legislative elections and “will have as its sole task that of allaying people’s concerns, of finding solution to problems that have for too long been ignored”. For his part, Jean-Marie Le Pen called his defeat in the elections “a defeat for French hope”. In his view, Chirac’s victory is “equivocal and was acquired by Soviet methods”. He expressed his satisfaction, however, that “the national opposition remained solid in spite of the hysterical campaign conducted between the two rounds, orchestrated by all the financial, political and media powers, all of them united in the defence of their own privileges”. A sense of shock was induced in the French Church by the results in the first round, which saw Jospin outvoted by Le Pen and a record abstention of 28.4%. Msgr. Stanislas Lalanne, secretary general of the French Episcopal Conference, in a statement made to SirEurope, explained that “after the first round, it was necessary to guide consciences and not to tell people for whom they should or should not vote”. So the decline in the rate of abstention to 19% in the second round shows, according to Bishop Lalanne, that “what was said about the importance of political life and the need for Catholics to participate actively in it was taken on board. In view of the forthcoming legislative elections, it’s essential he continued that these ideas not be lost sight of”. “The republican and anti-democratic hypothesis was defeated. Now the time has come for a real debate”, said Bishop Olivier de Beranger of Saint-Denis, in the region of Paris, in commenting on the vote to Vatican Radio. And he added: “I hope that there will be a serene and constructive debate that takes into consideration the evident civic ‘schism’ manifested after the first round. We must not underestimate the disenchantment concealed behind this protest vote, which also shows that a part of the electors no longer remember our history. We must not ignore this part of the electorate which, in my view, is not beyond recovery from a political point of view. That’s why we must concern ourselves with those who feel disenchanted with politics”. “There’s a social malaise that weakens both the left and the right of the government. In spite of this great confusion, Jean-Marie Le Pen still retains 18% of the vote, and this may place the right in difficulty in the forthcoming legislative elections”, says Gérard Leclerc, writer and editorialist of the French weekly France Catholique. “For fifteen days, we experienced a kind of imaginary fear, since Le Pen had no chance of becoming president. Even if he had had a chance, he would not have been able to govern, because he did not have a convincing team with a credible programme”. And he adds: “After this second round, we find ourselves faced by the real problems posed by the National Front and by the far left which show just how disenchanted French society is”. “Much ado about nothing”, is the comment of René Girard, professor at the University of Stanford in the USA. “There was never any chance of Le Pen being elected he explained to Sir . Everyone knew that, but he dramatized himself, perhaps to drum up electoral support”. Commenting on the “anti-fascist” demonstrations of 1st May which mobilized over 300,000 people in France, he added: “It’s contradictory to vote and then, in the light of the results, to demonstrate against the person elected. It’s a sign of the difficulty that our French democracy is encountering”. “The foreign media he concluded are only interested in these facts when the situation becomes critical. In this moment, the USA is looking to Europe only to speak of a return of fascism. That’s negative for the image of France”. C.L.
