France reels from Le Pen vote

Few had predicted a contest between Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen

The sense of unease across France is palpable - the newspaper headlines proclaim the success of the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen variously as an earthquake, a shock, a catastrophe.

As Mr Le Pen goes forward into the final round of Presidential voting on 5 May after finishing second to Jacques Chirac, the political establishment is rallying around Mr Chirac, and Lionel Jospin the Socialist Prime Minister has announced he's bowing out of politics.

Jacques Chirac's supporters will not countenance defeat at the next round - but there is certainly a wave of fraught concern in the camp of the RPR party.

The parliamentarian Pierre Lalouche, one of Chirac's long time advisers, says the attraction of Le Pen is based on the failrue of the centre-left and right to deliver.

"People want not to be scared when they go to work, they want public services that run, and an end to over-taxation," he explained.

Right wing tide?

Marisol Pouraine, socialist MP and a member of Lionel Jospin's campaign team told PM that her party had misjudged the impact of Mr Le Pen and fought the campaign as if it were a single round contest. But she insisted they were not alone in making that mistake.

Does the result in France mark a continuation of the right wing tide which has swept across core countries of the European Union?

We spoke to Hardy Bouillon, director of the Centre for New Europe, a pro-free market think tank based in Brussels. He laid the blame for the resurgence of the far-right squarely at the feet of the mainstream conservative parties.

Pat Cox, the President of the European Parliament told PM the result was shocking, but was not a total surprise.

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