Le Pen fears immigrants may become hostile force
(Adds Le Pen radio statement)
PARIS, April 9 (Reuter) - Extreme rightist presidential
candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen said on Sunday he feared immigrants
from Third World countries could become a hostile force inside
France.
``A new danger has been born...linked to the demographic
explosion of the Moslem world and to (Islamic) fundamentalism
which uses this phenomenom to project itself forward,'' Le Pen
told Radio Luxembourg.
``Never before have we had anything that so resembled a
potential fifth column as this presence of (nationals of)
certain foreign countries in our midst,'' he said.
His statement was expected to draw criticism as inciting
hatred towards millions of North African Arab immigrants in
France.
Le Pen, credited with about 12 percent in opinion polls
ahead of the April 23 first round vote, has campaigned for the
expulsion of immigrants from France, especially those from Third
World countries.
Police arrested two members of Le Pen's National Front (FN)
on Sunday after a man was injured in the latest of a string of
violent incidents involving the extreme rightist party.
State radio said the two were arrested following a late
night incident on Friday when FN men beat up a man in an eastern
district of Paris.
Three other FN men are in jail in the southern port of
Marseille for shooting dead a teenager of African origin in
February.
Le Pen's son-in-law and another FN man were given suspended
jail sentences last month after clashes between rightists and
students in the southwestern town of Auch. Police said the
rightists used tear-gas sprays and pick-axe handles.
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