Word: pens
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...surprise, however, was the muscular showing of Jean-Marie Le Pen, candidate of the ultra-rightist, anti-immigrant National Front. With 14.5% of the vote, Le Pen finished just behind former Premier Raymond Barre, with 16.5%, but well ahead of the once mighty Communist Party, whose candidate, Andre Lajoinie, won just 6.8% in the first round. In the process, Le Pen's movement seemed to have replaced the Communists as the major vehicle for protest voters. Le Pen thus became a durable force and pivotal arbiter of France's now divided right...
...most French citizens, Le Pen's triumph was cause for a certain amount of embarrassment and concern. Said Rumanian-born French Playwright Eugene Ionesco: "It is unacceptable and shameful for a country like France and for people like the French. Enough is enough...
...Pen, campaigning on the promise to expel France's roughly 4 million immigrants and reimpose the death penalty, had undeniable grass-roots appeal, but his support had been expected to reach no higher than 11%. Instead it mushroomed across the country, reaching more than 20% in eight metropolitan departments. The burly ex-paratrooper grabbed 28.3% of the vote in Marseilles, France's second largest city, topping all other major candidates. A total of some 4.4 million citizens supported the ultra-rightist. As the dimensions of Le Pen's breakthrough became apparent, the National Front leader declared on television, "We have...
...second-round duel with Chirac got under way, Mitterrand's task was still daunting. He had to push Chirac as far toward Le Pen as possible in the hope that many of Barre's 5 million center-right supporters would turn to the Socialist but moderate-sounding President. The pollsters carefully spelled out the arithmetic of Mitterrand's task. From the environmentalist, Communist and fringe Marxist parties, they calculated, Mitterrand could expect to add 13.5 percentage points to his first-round score. Total...
...professionals estimated that the President could also count on 3 percentage points from Le Pen's first-round total. That support, they thought, would come mainly from disenchanted Communists in working-class districts, where Le Pen sentiment was often strongest. Such voters had cast anti- immigrant protest ballots in the first round, but were expected to return to the leftist fold in the runoff. An additional 2 points of support was expected from Barre voters. All that would push Mitterrand over the top with nearly...