PARIS, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Jean-Marie Le Pen, the combative leader of France's far-right National Front Party, captured world headlines in April, when he placed second in the first round of French presidential elections. But the 74-year-old party leader's triumph was short lived: Le Pen was decisively defeated in the May run-off against President Jacques Chirac, Le Pen scored only 18 percent of the vote. Le Pen called the intensive campaign against his party in the run-up to the second round of voting a "Soviet-style technique." A month later, not a single member of Le Pen's National Front party -- including daughter, Marine -- was elected to the French National Assembly.
Last week, in a sign of the party's waning impact, the mayor of Annecy banned the National Front from holding its summer meeting in the Haute Savoie town. But in a recent interview Monday with Elizabeth Bryant, Paris correspondent for United Press International, Le Pen argued he -- and his party -- are still politically relevant. He also spoke out against what he called President Bush's "policy of aggression" toward Iraq.
Q: The National Front Party was soundly beaten in the (June) legislative elections. What is your -- and your party's future at this point?
LE PEN: We have no deputies (in the National Assembly) because France has a two-round electoral system with a goal of keeping the status quo. Parliament ought to be a body which represents the diversity of people's opinions -- and not just uphold the values of the system in place. Don't forget, I still scored only two points less than the incumbent president, despite our handicaps. Jacques Chirac only obtained 19 percent of the votes in the first round.
That equals the support from only one in eight voters. It's true he managed to amass 82 percent of the votes in the second round, but that was by using Soviet-style techniques.
Q: How do you explain the recent rise of far right parties like the National Front IN Europe?
LE PEN: What is characterized as the extreme right is really simply a national reaction. Many countries now have large 'people's parties,' which won't accept to see their native country disappear in favor of this amorphous Europe of 15 (the European Union) -- which tomorrow will explode into the Europe of 25, once countries like Turkey are invited to join. All these people think the same way -- that Europe is becoming too big for its
britches. That it will end up destroying individual nations, and yet fail to create a new, political entity.
Q: At the same time, European governments are also cracking down on far right groups -- like the National Unity group in France. What's your reaction?
LE PEN: The government is gliding down a slippery slope. A movement can't just be dissolved because it has unpleasant ideas. To ban a group it must have ideas that are against the law, and act in ways that are against the law. If (this trend) continues, it will ultimately end up suppressing the liberty of rivals and adversaries. Our own rights have been infringed. We never get the air time we should be allowed on radio and television. We face a real barrage in this area. And that makes political action very difficult. And it obviously discourages those -- like me -- who advocate democratic action.
Q: Still you've argued the National Front will keep fighting and growing. how do you plan to achieve this?
LE PEN: I'll use all the options for freedom of expression that remain.
Q: You have been very involved in Iraq. Some cite you as a personal friend of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. What's your reaction to reports the United States may wage war on Baghdad?
LE PEN: I am certainly not a friend of Saddam Hussein's. But I find the consequences of the U.N. sanctions both inhuman and insupportable. And I follow them closely, since my wife, Jany, heads a group called SOS Children of Iraq. It helps bring children medical and surgical supplies they are deprived of, because Iraq is denied the right to use its natural riches. I find it distressing and discouraging this attitude by a big country that calls itself a democracy, against a small country, whose people are the first to suffer. The policies of Mr. Bush are completely over the top. They threaten the balance of the entire region -- and of the world itself. It's an adventurist policy.
I'm not sure how Bush justifies it. Is it an effort to relaunch the American economy? Or to score points as a patriot in the eyes of the American people? Friends of the United States -- like me -- have an obligation to tell the truth to the American people: Don't get involved in actions with dangerous consequences.
Q: So do you believe the United States pursues aggressive and adventurous policies?
LE PEN: There's a French proverb that says power makes people crazy. And absolute power makes people absolutely crazy. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has become the world's superpower. There's no balance to this power. And if leaders don't have a higher morality, aren't capable of limiting their ambitions, they'll naturally use methods that are increasingly aggressive and authoritarian.
Q: AND EUROPE'S REACTION SHOULD BE?
LE PEN: With the exception of America's baby brother, Britain, most European powers are either completely hostile to an Iraq invasion like (Germany's) Mr. (Gerhard) Schroeder, or very reticent to the policy of aggression as defined by Mr. Bush.
Q: You're 74 years old. How long do you plan on heading the National Front?
LE PEN: I have no idea. I'm not a bureaucrat, so I don't plan my life around a retirement calendar. As long as I feel the energy and will -- and as long as my friends, my family and voters accept to see me in this position -- then I'll keep on. We're all in the hands of God. The minute he opens them, then everything ends. Well, I haven't fallen yet.
Q: What about your successor? People are saying your daughter, Marine, is being groomed for the job.
LE PEN: That was a rumor floated by reporters during a slow summer season. Marine is a young, 34-year-old woman, a young housewife with three children, who ran a good race in the north -- in a region that was once a Communist stronghold. We're all very proud that the National Front has such people, who can really attract the public's sympathy. But that doesn't change the succession scenario at the National Front. For the moment, the succession question isn't open. When it is, we'll follow our statutes, to elect the most qualified person. And for the moment, the most qualified person is Bruno Golnisch, the general representative of the National Front.
