The far right and re-engagement

Jean-Marie Le Pen stood on a race and crime platform

The young and the angry took to the streets again last night in cities around France to express their outrage at Jean Marie Le Pen's political breakthrough.

The biggest demonstration took place in central Paris yesterday afternoon, several thousand people took part, and in daylight the rally was peaceful. But late in the evening, and into the small hours of this morning clashes broke out between a hard-core of younger protesters and riot police.

We have a special report from Andrew North, who witnessed the disturbances.

All the main parties, including the Greens and the Communists, have invited their supporters to vote for the centre-right Jacques Chirac. He's expected to win a sweeping victory on Sunday week.

The left, which has governed France for most of the last 20 years, has been mortally wounded - many traditional communists and socialists voted for the National Front, along with a quarter of the unemployed.

Europe and Britain

France is not alone in seeing an upsurge in right-wing parties: Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Portugal have all have witnessed the same phenomenon.

The main common factor is that conventional parties of right and left are not providing voters with policies that meet their needs.

The British National Party's Nick Griffin is widely considered a fringe figure

Could it happen here? Could traditional Labour voters decide that mainstream parties no longer understand their needs?

The leading far-right group is the British National Party, and although it has failed to make a mark on the national scene, it has established local bridgehead mainly in Northern England.

The pattern of the BNP's limited progress does have parallels with the Le Pen phenomenon: working class voters, traditionally Labour-voting, who feel that the party has lost touch with them, and for whom immigration is an easy scapegoat.

When a centrist Labour came to office in 1997, it did so by appealing to a broader range of voters than ever before: Tony Blair would build a political tent so voluminous that no one would feel left out.

But one of the consequences is a broad public disengagement from politics. Today's ICM poll for the Guardian suggests that only a quarter of people will bother to vote for local councillors on 2 May.

And one lesson of Le Pen is that such conditions favour more extreme parties with simple, easily understood messages.

We consider the BNP's chances and get analysis from the former politician and academic David Marquand, and the Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Click on the links above right to hear more - including our interview with Mr Blunkett in full.