ANDREW STUTTAFORD blames the European Commission for the strong Le Pen showing. Meanwhile reader Thomas Lynn writes:

Mightn’t the votes for Le Pen–a law and order and anti(Muslim)immigration candidate–be seen as a repudiation of the recent events there? I know the French right has strong antiSemitic and antiAmerican tendencies, but isn’t it possible that in this case, that’s not what we’re seeing? I mean, if I were French, I might consider a vote for a law-and-order anti(Muslim)immigration candidate after the events of the last few weeks.

Hard to say. While Le Pen has something of a record of a holocaust-denier, he is more prominently anti-Arab (especially anti-Algerian) and anti-Muslim, so it may be driving that. His strong showing may also be a repudiation of Jospin’s rather, er, accomodationist rhetoric regarding the Arabs. Or it may just be the result of Chirac having aimed most of his attacks at Jospin, rather than Le Pen.

UPDATE: Reader Don McGregor offers this comment:

The situation in France should be a lesson about what happens when certain ideas are shouted out of the public arena. France has a problem with unassimilated Arabs living in industrialized public housing on welfare (hi Mickey Kaus). The “polite” parties and the chattering classes forbid a realistic discussion of the problem, substituting instead a lot of happy talk. But the rest of the polity noticed that there was indeed a real problem, despite the happy talk; lacking any good political alternatives, they opted for the only alternatives that were offered them, which happened to be bad.

Well, I think it’s certainly gotten some attention.