Pretoria | Tuesday
THE surprise success of right-winger Jean-Marie le Pen in the first round of France’s presidential voting will top the agenda at a meeting in Paris Tuesday of African ambassadors, a senior South African diplomat said on Monday.
The meeting will be coordinated by South African Ambassador Tutu Mazibuku-Skweyiya, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat said South Africans were as surprised as everyone that Le Pen had beaten Socialist leader Lionel Jospin in the first round of voting, won by incumbent President Jacques Chirac with 19,88% against 16,86 for Le Pen and 16,18 for Jospin.
”Happily we are assured by friends in business and politics (in France) that Jacques Chirac is certain to win the second round. We are reassured because Chirac has made strong commitments to Nepad,” said the diplomat, referring to the African rescue plan known as the New Programme for Africa’s Development.
”I am sure that Ambassador Mazibuku-Skweyiya will tell her African colleagues that this is a wake-up call — that something is very wrong. If the right-wing is not stopped in Europe, Africans might find themselves having to teach Europeans about the values of democracy.”
Le Pen’s campaign staff have been in contact with the South African embassy in Paris, according to officials at the mission. They were trying to organise a visit to South Africa by the anti-immigration champion.
Ambassador Skweyiya made it clear, the officials indicated, that this was not the right time for Le Pen to be received in South Africa.
Nevertheless, contact with him would continue, as they did with other French political groups. – Sapa-AFP