Far-right candidate pulls huge upset in bid for top spot

PARIS -- In a huge upset, extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified on Sunday to face incumbent Jacques Chirac in the runoff for French president, a political earthquake that appeared to reflect both a sense of deep voter apathy and insecurity over rising crime.

Le Pen, who virulently opposes immigration and has been accused during his long political career of racism and anti-Semitism, dealt a stunning blow to Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, whose third-place finish defied all predictions.

With 97 percent of the vote counted, Interior Ministry results showed Chirac, a conservative, with 19.6 percent of the vote, Le Pen with 17.1 percent and Jospin with 16 percent.

First round turnout was 72 percent -- the lowest in four decades. The balloting pared a wildly diverse field of 16 candidates down to two.

A shocked Jospin announced he would retire from political life immediately after the presidential election, which ends with the May 5 runoff.

"I plainly assume responsibility for this failure," Jospin said in a choked voice, calling the results a "thunderbolt."

"And I draw the conclusions," he continued, "in withdrawing from political life after the end of the presidential election."

Chirac, meanwhile, called on all French citizens unite to defeat Le Pen in the second round.

"I call on all French men and women to gather up to defend human rights," Chirac said in a somber speech that expressed no joy at coming in first. "At risk is our national cohesion, the values of the Republic. "France needs you, and I need you."

Polls taken immediately after the first round showed Chirac would easily defeat Le Pen in the next round with three-quarters of the vote.

Thousands of people poured into the streets of Paris, Marseille and other French cities late Sunday, protesting Le Pen's showing. "I am ashamed to be French," read several of the hastily written signs carried by protesters.

Many saw Le Pen's astonishing results as a reflection of a deep voter apathy and disaffection with the two major candidates, seen as too old, too familiar and too similar. Neither Chirac nor Jospin was able to connect to the electorate during a campaign dismissed by most as boring.

Le Pen, 73, is founder and head of the National Front party, which historically has blamed immigrants, especially from North Africa, for high unemployment and urban violence. He is notorious for once describing the Holocaust as "a detail" of history. He has denied he is anti-Semitic.

In this campaign, though, he toned down his rhetoric, perhaps in a bid to appeal to more mainstream voters.

"I haven't become quieter," Le Pen told The Associated Press recently. "I think it's public opinion that has moved closer to mine and people have realized that, contrary to what they thought, I was right, I wasn't an extremist."

On Sunday evening, he attributed his victory to the deep concern among French voters over rising crime -- concern that, he said, hadn't been addressed by the government.

"There is a dramatic state of (public) insecurity in our country," he said, "and those responsible for it, the people have understood, are Jospin and Chirac."

France was deeply shaken by several recent high-profile crimes, including the killing of eight city councilmen by a gunman in suburban Paris and a spate of attacks on Jewish targets.

Le Pen's success was sure to cause concern in other European countries like Germany and Italy, where governments are also coping with anti-immigrant sentiment.

Britain's Foreign Office described the result as a "internal domestic matter" for France. But European Union Commissioner Neil Kinnock said he was "astounded and horrified" and that the result "throws a great dirty rock into the European political pool."

For France, it was deeply embarrassing. France strongly supported a campaign to impose sanctions against Austria in February 2000 for including the ultra-right Freedom Party in its government.

Flamboyant and charismatic, Le Pen is something of a French institution. He's played a central role as kingmaker in past presidential elections, typically pulling about 15 percent of the vote.

A former paratrooper who fought in Indochina and Algeria, Le Pen strikes a chord among voters who fear that the French identity is being displaced by waves of mainly Muslim immigrants from North Africa. He often has compared immigration to an invasion.

Only a matter of weeks ago, Le Pen was complaining that he might not get the required 500 endorsements from elected officials to become a candidate this year. He blamed Chirac for trying to sabotage his campaign.

Also during the campaign, Chirac had to publicly deny allegations that he met personally with Le Pen between the two rounds of the 1988 presidential contest -- a sign of how isolated Le Pen is from the political establishment.

Chirac and Jospin shared power for five years in an uncomfortable "cohabitation" arrangement that left both men frustrated. For Jospin, a political heir of the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand who has served as prime minister since 1997, Sunday's results were a crushing blow.

Many voters said they were disillusioned because Chirac and Jospin were well-worn faces in France who did not represent change. Also, people saw few differences between Chirac and Jospin's political platforms. Both pledged to stem rising crime, cut taxes and reduce unemployment.

French people in the streets expressed astonishment when they heard of the projected results.

"That's not possible," said Agathe Romon, 17, a student in Paris. "It's unbelievable. We were all expecting a duel between Jospin and Chirac."

Christian Pinard, 44, said he hadn't voted Sunday but would do so in the next round.

"It's scandalous," said Pinard. "I've always been anti-vote. Now I'm going to vote in the second round to make sure that Le Pen doesn't become becoming president."

On a Eurostar train leaving London for Paris on Sunday evening, travelers exclaimed in disbelief after the election result was announced over the loudspeakers.