BRUSSELS -- Last Sunday's results from France saw Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme-right Front National, finish just behind French President Jacques Chirac, eliminating Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from the May 5 second round of voting and prompting him to retire from politics. Yet the result has been misread by Europe's press and politicians.
It has been portrayed as new and national, with shock and indignation being directed at France and the French. In reality it is older and wider, and more represents a failure of the political system than a success for the FN. The writing has been on the wall for a decade and more.
After all, in the 1995 presidential election Le Pen and the other extreme-right candidate, Philippe de Villiers (Mouvement pour la France), polled 19.74 percent of the vote and 6.01 million votes. On Sunday, it was 19.20 percent and 5.47 million votes for Le Pen and his erstwhile deputy Bruno Megret, who represented the Mouvement National Republicain. Since 1995, Le Pen's own vote has only crept up by 240,000.