Protesters Take to the Streets of Paris

Rival May Day marches by supporters and opponents of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen took to the streets of Paris today, with his detractors expected in far greater numbers.

Police said between 10-12,000 supporters of Mr Le Pen, the National Front leader and presidential challenger, joined him on a march this morning. His critics quickly scoffed that this was only around a fifth of the 50,000 he had predicted.

Hundreds of thousands of anti-Le Pen protesters were expected to turn out for marches planned for this afternoon in Paris and around 70 other cities in France.

Today's events were being described by anti-Le Pen protesters as the climax of their demonstrations - which have been on-going since his shock passage through to a second round run-off against Jacques Chirac for the presidency on Sunday.

Mr Le Pen, whose extreme nationalist polices - especially his fierce anti-immigration ideas - have prompted much disgust in France, said his march was the perfect response to protests against him.

The extremist's supporters crowded in the Rue de Rivoli, a main artery through the city, chanting "Le Pen, president" and waving Tricolore flags and signs that said "I'm proud to be French".

They marched up to the Paris Opera house and Mr Le Pen laid a bouquet of white flowers at a gilded statue of Joan of Arc riding a horse and waving the national flag. For his party, Joan of Arc is a symbol of French resistance against foreign "invaders".

Maurice Dumontot, a 58-year-old retired police brigadier among the marchers, called Mr Le Pen "the Joan of Arc of modern times".

"Le Pen is the unloved candidate, but he's our only chance to put things in order to stop all the crime and have people respect our laws," he said.

A few people showed their anger at the parade. One family, standing on a balcony above the marchers, hung out a banner that read: "No".

In a radio interview before the march, Mr Le Pen said he had taken "all possible precautions" to ensure his own safety and said he had asked his security officers to eject any neo-Nazi supporters who might try to join in. There were, however, rightwing skinheads seen marching in the parade.

Amid fears of violence, some 3,500 security forces, from riot police to plainclothes officers, were being deployed in Paris, where there are five separate protests planned for later in the day calling for a rejection of Mr Le Pen's politics.

Mr Chirac, the centre-right current president, yesterday appealed for calm at the protests, saying violence would only play into the hands of his rival. "In a democracy, political action doesn't take place in the streets . . . It takes place in the ballot box," Mr Chirac said.

About 330 hidden surveillance cameras installed above Paris streets, as well as two helicopters, were being used to help police monitor the crowds.

Since his surprise success in the April 21 first round, Mr Le Pen has complained that he has been a "victim of a campaign of hate and lies". His daughter, also a national front politician, said the march was the "proper response" to the wave of anti-Le Pen street protests that have swept France.

"The problem is not the demonstrations, it's the defamation, the slander and the insults that people shout," Marine Le Pen said.

In Paris, the main anti-Le Pen demonstration was planned for the afternoon while a separate gathering was planned at a bridge over the Seine in memory of a Moroccan man who was drowned by national front supporters during a rally on May 1 1995. A group of skinheads at the rally pushed the man, Brahim Bouarram, off the bridge.

Mr Le Pen has been convicted of racism and anti-semitism numerous times. He blames immigration, particularly from Muslim north Africa, for unemployment and for rising crime.

He wants to pull France out of the European Union and return to the franc, the currency abandoned in favour of the euro at the start of this year, as well as deport all illegal immigrants and tighten border controls.