FRANCE: Le Pen cranks up his campaign as protesters take to the streets one week before French elections

Around 300 people demonstrated in Paris against far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and his party, the National Front. The protesters, mostly from the far left, protested against what they said was the introduction of Le Pen's political agenda into mainstream politics. "This is what we call the Lepenisation of the mind, which he resumed quite well in his campaign TV clip . He's been defending the same things for thirty years, but now Sarkozy is running after him, Royal is running after Sarkozy, so the whole political chessboard is drifting to the right with nationalist ideas," said protester Gabriel. Le Pen shocked France when, in the last presidentials in 2002, he reached the second round with President Jacques Chirac. Chirac went on to win a landslide victory. Le Pen on Sunday met with thousands of supporters. Some were not allowed inside due to the sheer size of the crowd. The immigration issue took centre stage. Le Pen is pushing for tighter border controls, tighter conditions for acquiring French nationality and scrapping the right to dual nationality. He also wants to discourage illegal immigrants by cutting off the incentives that encourage them to come to France. "The results are there, 10 million immigrants have come into our country over the past thirty years, and today, still, year after year, 450,000 migrants, legal or not legal, come into our country" he said. He also attacked Nicolas Sarkozy, who he accused of stealing his ideas and of an overly pro-American foreign policy stance. "One question Mr Sarkozy . As the threat of a conflict arises in the Middle East with Iran, you, who have declared yourself proud of being called Sarko the American, I ask you -- if the United States or Israel decided to use force, would you, as president engage France alongside them in a war against Iran?," asked Le Pen. Polls show Le Pen is currently lying in fourth position in the race with between 13 percent and 15 percent of the vote.

ITN Source | April 16, 2007

Tags:. .hes. .cutting. .left. .same. .mr