Juppe calls for pact as looming National Front win spreads alarm in other parties

POLITICIANS from France's conservative majority and the left wing opposition yesterday reacted with alarm to the success of the racist National Front (FN) in the first round of municipal by elections in Vitrolles, near Marseilles.

If the FN wins the second round next Sunday, Vitrolles will become the fourth French city to be governed by the extreme right.

Vitrolles is a microcosm of France's troubled cities, with 19 per cent unemployment, botched urban planning, racial tension and disillusionment with local political corruption. Next Sunday's run off may be a harbinger of the outcome of the March 1998 parliamentary election.

The Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, called on "voters attached to republican values" to assume their responsibilities in the second round. Mr Roger Guichard, the conservative UDF politician who came in third in Sunday's poll, would have to stand down to give the outgoing Socialist mayor the best chance of beating the FN candidate, Mr Juppe said.

"There is no room for hesitation," the Prime Minister said. "Taking account of the results of the first round, all of us want the UDF majority candidate to withdraw.

Socialist party candidates sacrificed themselves twice last year, in the towns of Dreux and Gardanne, to prevent FN candidates from winning.

Ms Catherine Megret, the FN candidate, won 46.69 per cent of the votes cast on Sunday. Mr Jean Jacques Anglade, the outgoing Socialist mayor, came in second with 36.99 per cent, followed by Mr Guichard, who won 16.3 per cent of the vote. Mr Anglade was considered the biggest loser, since left wing candidates had won an aggregate of 41.9 per cent in the first round of the June 1995 municipal election.

In 1995, Mr Anglade beat Mr Bruno Megret, the husband of Ms Megret, by a mere 353 votes. That election was later declared invalid. Mr Megret, who is number two in Mr Jean Marie Le Pen's extreme right wing movement, was found to have surpassed the limit on campaign spending and was declared ineligible for a year.

Mr Anglade was a poor choice to stand against Ms Megret; he has been indicted for fake in voicing and is so unpopular that the local Socialist party in Vitrolles has disowned him.

Ms Megret's candidacy is a thinly disguised pretext; Mr Megret appears in front of her on campaign posters and accompanied her as she campaigned in Vitrolles, dressed in a Chanel scarf, sunglasses and suede gloves. She refused to allow the press to accompany her to the Tupperware parties she attended, and her chief obsession seems to be "10 year old north African hooligans who throw rocks at cars."

The Megrets have made no secret that if Ms Megret wins, the mayor's duties will be carried out by Mr Hubert Fayard, her husband's deputy - since Mr Megret is too busy with FN business elsewhere. That Ms Megret won nearly half of the vote in these circumstances shows how attractive the FN label has become toe French voters. Mr Megret has told the people of Vitrolles to "follow their hearts" in the second round.