Not long ago, May 1st, or May Day, used to be opportunity for all eyes from the West to be aimed at Moscow?s Red Square, where the powerful military machine of the Soviet Union would be in display; something like an infomercial for international communism. But this is the old time.
Nowadays, May Day is still Labor Day in all countries in the northern hemisphere, except the United States. May Day is a holiday. It is the day when workers and unions come out to celebrate their acquired rights, and claim new rights.
On May Day this year, all eyes were turned toward France where one million people (and 3,500 police) took the streets of Paris, Marseille, Strasbourg, etc, to say ?Non!? (no) to Jean-Marie Le Pen and his neo-Nazi party, the Front National.
At La Concorde Square, in front of 10,000 supporters, and under the statue of Joan of Arc, Le Pen delivered his venom with eloquence. He called outgoing President Jacques Chirac a coward, a thief, a traitor. He railed against the fact that Chirac would not debate his racist, xenophobic, isolationist views on T.V.
That was May Day 2002. In four days, Jacques Chirac will be re-elected President of Fifth French Republic. He will be backed by 80% of the electorate, in a protest vote against Le Pen. Le Pen will be 78 at the next presidential elections; he will never be President.
This time, this Sunday, fascism will not triumph in the country of Voltaire and Montesquieu. But, do we know what will happen the next time around?
(OdlerRobert Jeanlouie, Thursday, May 02, 2002)
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05-02-02, 03:51 AM
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