statements from defeated revolutionary candiadates in recent french elections on Le Pen

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday May 01, 2002 15:36 by revolution of the everyday life

The turnout was low, at 71.60%. The main revolutionary left candidates, Arlette Laguiller and Olivier Besancenot, got over 10% between them, but this stunning success has been overshadowed by the even larger vote for the far right. Jean-Marie Le Pen of the Front National and Bruno Mégret of the MNR (a split from the FN) got almost as many votes between them as Chirac.

The results in the French Presidential
Elections were:
Jacques Chirac (Gaullist) 19,88 % - 5,666,440
Jean-Marie Le Pen (far right) 16,86 % - 4,805,307
Lionel Jospin (Socialist) 16,18 % - 4,610,749
Francois Bayrou (mainstream right) 6,84 % - 1,949,436
Arlette Laguiller (Trotskyist, Lutte Ouvrière) 5,72 % - 1,630,244
Jean-Pierre Chevènement (populist) 5,33 % - 1,518,901
Noël Mamère (Green) 5,25 % - 1,495,901
Olivier Besancenot (Trotskyist, LCR) 4,25 % - 1,210,694
Jean Saint-Josse (populist) 4,23 % - 1,204,863
Alain Madelin (mainstream right) 3,91 % - 1,113,709
Robert Hue (Communist Party) 3,37 % - 960,757
Bruno Mégret (far right) 2,34% - 667,123
Christiane Taubira (counted as being part of the "gauche plurielle") 2,32 % - 660,576
Corinne Lepage 1,88 % - 535,911
Christine Boutin 1,19 % - 339,142
Daniel Gluckstein (Trotskyist, PT) 0,47 % - 132,702

The PCF (Communist Party, long the largest political party in France, with 20%+ of the vote, and the Socialist Party's coalition partner in government) seems to be "finished", "financially and politically". It scored only 3.4%. Parties getting under 5% don't get their election costs back from the state.
Arlette Laguiller, of the group Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Fight), got fewer votes than expected - polls were giving her 10%. Oliver Besancenot, a 26 year old postal worker from the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Communist League, Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International) did much better than expected.
In what presumably should have been a speech launching the second round of the election campaign - if it wasn't for the results - Jospin has announced his resignation from politics, after the second round of the campaign. He also essentially blamed the "rest of the" left (assuming you count Jospin / PS as part of the left) for the situation resulting in the second round being a run off between Chirac and Le Pen. He did not however call on his supporters or "the left" to back a particular candidate on May 5th.

Previously (at 9pm) , LCR candidate Olivier Bescancenot said that the result is the fault of the "gauche plurielle" - the mainstream left, in government. "The number of left wing candidates is not responsible for the breakthrough of the extreme right, but it's the policies of successive governments over a number of years that is responsible."

He also called on the left, on socialists, communists, greens, and also trade union activists to organise a popular resistance movement against the extreme right, against fascism and the capitalist class.

Statement from Arlette Laguiller (Lutte Ouvriere)
First of all, I thank the 6% of voters who once again have given me their
confidence and supported my ideas.
I understand the probable confusion of the working classes at the
possibility of seeing a man like Le Pen getting into the second round.
No-one wants to see Le Pen elected, but if he was, that is to say if he
obtained 51% of the votes in the 2nd round, although that's improbable, it
would signify a major move in opinion, a tipping of the scales of such
importance that we would have to defend ourselves by means beyond the
ballot-paper.
We won't change such a situation by voting for Chirac.
Because Chirac, once elected, won't even stick to his own politics - he'l
look to please above all the 20% of voters who have backed Le Pen.
I turn once again to the labour movement to say: the rise of the extreme
right in public opinion is worrying. But, outside the ballot-box, the labour
movement is the strongest and no-one will be capable of imposing upon it
anything it doesn't want.
It's not by supporting Chirac and giving him a good conduct certificate that
we will combat the ideas of Le Pen and that we will combat his public
support.
So we must reject the politics of the big bourgeoisie, whether they are put
forward by Chirac, Jospin or Le Pen.
Moreover, the politics of the Communist Party (which got 3.5% or so) of
participation in the government (i.e., Jospin's government) have been
radically censured.
This shows that the far left, beyond its score, can be loud (?proud?) about
its weight in the working classes.

Initial statement from Olivier Besancenot (LCR)
This evening there was a political earthquake in this country. It is a
victory for the worst enemies of workers and youth.

The National Front is a current which represents a direct line from Vichy,
from fascism, from the Nazi crimes of the second world war. This evening I
share the sadness of millions of people in the face of this growth of the
extreme right, in particular the millions of immigrants who live in our
country. It's the result of the campaign unleashed by Chirac and the right,
and accepted by Jospin, over people's insecurity.

It's also the result of the politics upheld by the pluralist left in
government, which has dramatically cut itself off from the working classes.
At the same time, these elections express a change in the relation of forces
on the left, with more than 10% for the far left, LO and LCR. I thank the
4.8% of voters who have backed my candidature, a candidature for everyone
who shares their anxieties and their hopes.

The multiple candidatures on the left are not responsible for the growth of
the far right, it's the politics of successive governments over the years
that is responsible for that. We must now rebuild hope on the left,
beginning by relying on the forces of renewal which expressed themselves in
the candidatures of LO and LCR, organisations which have particular
responsibilities in this new situation. Young people, who have fought in
large numbers against capitalist globalisation and fascism, also offer hope.

I ask those who voted for the left, socialists, communists, greens but also
trade union militants together to organise a working-class resistance to the
rise of the extreme right, standing all together against fascism and the
bosses.

Oliier Besancenot (Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire)
21.04.2002, 21h

Statement from Liz Davies and Rob Hoveman for the Socialist Alliance (England)

prime minister Lionel Jospin from the Presidential elections in France has
sent shock waves across Europe. It is clear that Blair and New Labour will
try to use Le Pen’s success to try to marginalise the left and to weaken
support for the Socialist Alliance. Last night Neil Kinnock, the man who
laid the groundwork for Blairism and is now a hugely overpaid European
Commissioner, blamed the ‘fragmentation of the left' and the fact that there
were Trotskyite and Communist candidates in the election for Jospin’s demise
and Le Pen’s success - ironic for someone who led a witchhunt against the
revolutionary left in the Labour Party in the 1980s.

We have to be able to answer these allegations, particularly in the few
wards where there are both Socialist Alliance and Nazi candidates. The blame
for the rise of Le Pen lies above all with Jospin's social democratic
government:

· Chirac decided to make crime the central issue in the election campaign,
despite the fact there is no ‘crimewave' in France. This was a gift for Le
Pen but Jospin, far from challenging this agenda, completely accommodated to
it.

· The ‘cohabitation' between the ‘Socialist' government and the Conservative
President has been based on a consensus in policy. Most voters could see no
real difference between Chirac and Jospin’s policies and turnout fell
dramatically as a result. This is the same phenomenon as we saw at the last
British general election.

· Le Pen was a joke candidate in 1981 but in the 1980s the Front National
began to see a dramatic increase in its support in some areas. How
appropriate the response of the left was to the growth of support for the
Nazis is a matter of controversy. It is clear however that if the threat of
the Nazis is underestimated whilst they are still small, it then becomes
much more difficult to deal with them once they have been allowed to crawl
out of the gutter.

· This is a wake up call. Already there have been big and militant anti-Nazi
demonstrations across France. We must hope these build up over the next two
weeks. It’s very important that in England we throw our efforts into
campaigning against the BNP candidates standing in the local elections,
particularly in Burnley and Oldham where they have the best chance of
success.

· Le Pen’s success also shows how important it is to build an alternative to
Blair’s neo-liberal ideology. The only positive thing to come out of the
French Presidential elections is the higher vote for socialist candidates
standing independently of the Blairite Socialist Party. We can’t just
continue to urge people not to vote for the Nazis when the alternative is
more privatisation, more attacks on working class people and more privilege
for the rich. We have to construct a credible socialist alternative. And
that is why we also need to throw ourselves into getting the biggest
possible vote for Socialist Alliance candidates in the local elections on
2nd May.

Liz Davies - National Chairperson
Rob Hoveman - National Secretary
Socialist Alliance (England)
22 April 2002

Statement by the Political Bureau of the LCR

1. For the first time since 1974, the LCR presented a candidature at the
presidential election. 4.3% of electors, 1,200,000 people, voted for
Olivier Besancenot. Despite the difficulties of the first round of these
elections, the balance sheet of the LCR's campaign is that it expresses
promising changes which prepare the ground for the emergence of an
alternative politics to that practiced by the parties of the governmental
left.

2. The results of the first round of the presidential elections constitute
a political earthquake. It is a trauma for millions of people for whom Le
Pen recalls the worst times in the history of our country, those of Vichy
and fascism. Le Pen's populism cannot conceal his real politics in the
service of the rich and powerful. He approves of privatization, anti-social
legislation, givebacks to the employers and abusive procedures for the
dismissal of employees. The new breakthrough of the Front National
constitutes a defeat for the entire workers' and democratic movement. After
Italy, Portugal and Denmark, it is France's turn. In all these countries,
the consequences of the neoliberal policies of left governments have led to
the breakthrough of the neoliberal and far right.

3. Le Pen's score results first from the campaign waged by Chirac and the
right around insecurity, accepted by Lionel Jospin and taken up also by
Chevènement. But more substantially, the rejection of the policies followed
by successive governments for 20 years leads today to an unprecedented
crisis of political representation. Abstention, which increased by nearly
6% between the presidential election of 1995 and that of 2002, is the most
obvious sign of it. Finally, this first round of the presidential election
confirms that the excessive personalization of the election of the
president, in the framework of the institutions of the 5th Republic, opens
the road to the worst kind of demagogue.

4. Despite presenting himself as a democrat, Chirac is above all somebody
whose moral integrity is tainted by scandal. More than that, having
received less than 20% of votes in the 1st round, it is an electorally
discredited president who will lead the country. Chirac is in fact the
representative of a neoliberal right inspired directly by the programme of
the MEDEF [the French employers' federation]. His neoliberal
counter-reforms are intended to worsen the living and working conditions of
millions of wage earners. The choice of a campaign centred on insecurity
indicates new attacks against democratic rights. The election of the
candidate of the right will lead to a government bent on head on
confrontation with the world of labour.

5. But the political earthquake that the country has undergone is also the
result of the policies of the government of the 'plural left'. Since 1997,
this government has adapted itself to neoliberalism and has surrendered to
the diktats of the financial markets. It has now been sanctioned by the
popular classes who no longer feel represented by this governmental left.

The main consequence of these policies has been the stinging defeat of the
Socialist Party. It is also one of the explanations for the fall of the
PCF, which has seen a brutal acceleration of its historic decline. The
nationalist project of Chevènement has also been rejected. As to the
Greens, if they have resisted the pressure around 'security', they have
confirmed their support for the policies of the governmental left.

6. At the same time, these elections have registered a change in the
relationship of forces on the left, with the far left scoring more than
11%. These elections bring into broad daylight the existence in this
country of a governmental left which has accepted the rules of capitalist
globalization, a left which has been sanctioned, and a popular left of
millions of youth and wage earners who reject neoliberal policies.
In the political earthquake the country has undergone we must now refound
hope on the left, breaking with the record of the plural left government.

The question of a new anti-capitalist political force, of a new party of
workers and youth, is sharply posed. First, by building on the forces of
renewal which were expressed in the candidatures of Olivier
Besancenot and Arlette Laguiller. Lutte Ouvrière and the LCR have in this
sense particular responsibilities. The LCR has already proposed to LO a
discussion around the new political situation and the tasks of
revolutionaries.

Hope is also represented by the youth who are massively resisting
capitalist globalization and fascism, as well as by trade union and
community activists and those in the social movements. It is ultimately the
activists, Communists, ecologists, Socialists who are asking questions and
finding the way to an alternative politics.

7. Immediately, the first demonstrations of youth reflect the resistance of
society to the rise of the far right. The first priority now is to build a
demonstration of force against Le Pen and the bosses' politics on May 1st,
in every town in the country.

We must bar the road to Le Pen, the worst enemy of the workers, in the
street as in the elections.

The LCR will mobilize so that Le Pen scores the lowest possible vote on
Sunday May 5.

We understand those electors who will vote for Chirac to oppose Le Pen, but
we do not think that Chirac is a rampart against the new rise of the far
right.

On the contrary, he is among those responsible for it, and there is no
doubt that following his election he will take measures against wage
earners, youth and immigrants.

It is a time for a mobilization against the far right and the bosses, a
unitary mobilization of the workers' movement and youth around social
demands which put an end to unemployment and inequality and mobilizations
for the defence of the immigrants without documents.

Political Bureau of the LCR
22 April 2002