Brussels, 22/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The breakthrough of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of the presidential elections in France led to strong reactions in the European Parliament, including on the part of its President, Pat Cox who, while noting that an EP president "would not normally comment on national elections", considered that "these particular elections have produced such an unusual and unexpected results as to warrant an exception". Calling for caution, Mr. Cox said that in the second round of the presidential elections all democrats in France would "rally behind democratic values and stand up against intolerance and xenophobia"., and that at the end of the legislative elections, "France will retain her place in the mainstream of the politics of tolerance in Europe". "The future of France will necessarily affect the future of Europe", says Cox, for whom a result in which some 30% of the electorate did not turn out and nearly as many electors who took part voted for candidates of the extreme right or extreme left "is likely to hold lessons not just for France but for the entire European political class".
As for Graham Watson, President of the Liberal Group, he launched an appeal to democratic parties to "recommit themselves to the Charter of Political Parties for a non-racist society, adopted in February 1998 and signed by nearly 100 political parties". The co-President of the Green/EFA Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, for his part, notes that we are assisting in Europe, "from Italy to Denmark, Austria to Portugal, in a crisis of the project of the Left, be it Social-Democrat or Green", and called for a "political and cultural remodelling of the social left, ecologist, reformist and libertarian".
CDU MEP Hartmut Nassauer, did not explicitly refer to the success of Le Pen, and especially welcomed the "decline of the Socialists in Europe", which, he said, "should weaken the Socialists in European bodies, especially the Council". In addition, he hoped for a clear victory for Jacques Chirac, "who belongs to the family of our party and has proven himself to be European"
Among the few voices to disagree, FPO member of the EP, Gerhard Hager, exclaimed in a press release: "Now we know: democracy is only when the result is what the Left wants, all the rest is a disaster".