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France: Le Pen and Chirac on immigration

01 January 1991

France: Le Pen and Chirac on immigration
artdoc April=1993

The French general election - Le Pen and Chirac on immigration

As part of its general election campaign, the Front National
released a programme of `300 measures for the renaissance of
France', including the FN's usual proposals for action against
immigration. Focusing on the threat posed by the `destruction of
nations',`abolition of frontiers' and the `mixing of races', the
FN writes,`If the dictatorship of the proletariat is no longer
fashionable, the melting pot has become obligatory ... the myth
of the red paradise has been overtaken by the coffee-coloured
utopia' (Liberation 17.2.93).
Jacques Chirac, leader of the Rassemblement pour la Republique
(RPR), speaking at a meeting on 16 February at Aries,
Bouches-du-Rhone, linked unemployment to the presence of
immigrants. `Today there are 5 million excluded from the world
of work and we can't accept any more people in France. It is
vital to us, and in line with moral principles, to have policies
which defend our territory as well as a policy of solidarity and
generosity towards countries of immigration,'he said (Figaro
17.2.93).

Bomb attacks in Corsica

Bomb attacks, coinciding with the period of Ramadan, have
occurred in Corsica. Bombs exploded at a halal butcher's shop
which belonged to a Moroccan man who has been attacked three
times since 1990, and at the mosque in Ghisonaccia. Cars
belonging to immigrants were also damaged (Liberation 22.2.93).

Racism/fascism

IRR European Race Audit no 3, 1993.
Contact: Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations,
2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS. Tel: ++ 071 837 0041