Скачать или смотреть News conference by NF leader, comments on UK, Canal Plus

(26 Apr 2002)

1. Wide shot exterior of Le Pen's headquarters, with Le Pen banner
2. Tight shot of banner reading: "Le Pen for President"
3. Interior Le Pen walking to podium
4. Wide shot of reporters
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Marie Le Pen, National Front leader and French presidential candidate
"In this domain, we don't have the prejudice we are said to have and, in particular, I am not more racist than Tony Blair, who doesn't want the immigrants in Sangatte to get into Britain. And also Switzerland and Norway are not the poorest countries in Europe and they do not belong to the European Union."
6. Cutaway of reporters
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Marie Le Pen, National Front leader and French presidential candidate:
"(Q Concerning Sangatte, what would you do?) Honestly, I think we have to render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to the British what is theirs. That is to say, I think we could use a special train to send them to Mr. Blair."
9. Canal Plus journalist, John-Paul Lepers, shouting: "Mister, don't push me. What is this?! You threw someone outside and you want me outside as well?!"
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Marie Le Pen, National Front leader and French presidential candidate
(Laughing) "What is this provocation. Ah, naturally, it's Canal Plus. This is the famous Mr. Lepers who came here on behalf of Karl Zero (anchor of the Canal Plus show "The Real Journal") to try to make one of his usual provocations."
11. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Marie Le Pen, National Front leader and French presidential candidate
"I call for a genuine national rally against the popular front that Jacques Chirac is trying to set up in order to save himself and escape from the judges that are waiting for him and who want to talk with him about a certain number of problems outside of his presidential immunity."
12. Cutaway
13. Wide shot of Canal Plus journalist John-Paul Lepers speaking to journalists
14. SOUNDBITE (French) John-Paul Lepers, Canal Plus journalist
"I wanted to interview him but his big guys forced me out of the room and then I reacted by screaming that I was prevented from doing my job."
15. Wide shot of cameramen

STORYLINE:

French presidential candidate and leader of the far-right French National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, says he's no more racist than British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

At a news conference in Paris on Friday, Le Pen argued that the British government's opposition to the presence of the refugee camp at Sangatte, near Calais, showed there was no difference between his approach to immigration and that of Blair's.

He then proposed that all immigrants seeking asylum at Sangatte should be sent to Blair on a special train.

Earlier this week, Blair called on voters across Europe to reject the policies espoused by the National Front in France.

He told British M-Ps there was no future in what he called the "narrow-minded racism and nationalism" of Le Pen, who faces a presidential election run-off against Jacques Chirac on May 5 after coming second in the first round of polling last weekend.

During the news conference, Le Pen's security guards tried to eject journalist John-Paul Lepers, who works for the French cable station Canal Plus.

In a tense moment, Lepers shouted out and was allowed to remain, but Le Pen refused to take his questions and mocked the correspondent and Canal Plus.

Le Pen's campaign strategy has been to use the media to reach French voters, rather than through the use of campaign rallies like his opponent, incumbent President Jacques Chirac.

But Le Pen is expected to hold one rally in Marseilles on May 2.

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