Shrewd shadow candidate of National Front saw failings of left and right

MR BRUNO Megret couldn't wait to take over the Hotel de Ville his wife won for him on Sunday. Yesterday, three days before Ms Catherine Megret was to be officially invested as mayor of Vitrolles, Mr Megret moved into the ugly cement building. Supporters of the right wing National Front (FN) claimed the Socialists, knowing defeat was imminent, last week removed furniture and archives.

Mr Jean Marie Le Pen, the leader of the FN, said the "V" of victory stood for Vitrolles. He tritely described the front's election win as "a swallow of the French spring" and said it proved the extremist movement could become France's first political party.

The same awful thought flashed through the minds of France's ruling right wing RPR UDF coalition and of the opposition Socialists. The right was unanimous in blaming the Socialists, who had misruled Vitrolles for the past 14 years, for the election debacle. The Megre triumph "marks the failure of old fashioned politics and urban development based on political patronage," Mr Jean Claude Gaudin, the UDF mayor of neighbouring Marseille and France's Minister for Urban Affairs said.

Mr Pierre Aidenbaum, the president of the International League against Racism and Anti Semitism, said he felt "sadness, shame and consternation to see a fourth city in the south of France fall into the hands of a party whose sole ideology is hatred and exclusion".

Mr Aidenbaum noted that "France is today the only country in Europe where cities are run by a neo fascist party reminiscent of the dark years of our history".

Most alarming for the mainstream French right was the realisation that the EN had seduced its voters, thereby threatening the "republican front" - the last ditch left right alliance heretofore used to halt EN advances. To win Sunday's election, the Megrets had to gain votes among the 16.3 per cent of the electorate which chose the UDF candidate, Mr Roger Guichard, in the first round.

Right wing leaders - including the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, asked their followers to endorse the Socialist, Mr Jean Jacques Anglade, rather than supports the EN. The turn out was unusually high - more than 80 per cent - and 5.18 per cent cast blank protest ballots. Nonetheless, a significant portion of right wing voters disobeyed their leaders to vote for the Megrets.

Perhaps it was because the well educated, upper middle class Megrets seemed more palatable than the front's usual rough leaders. Mr Megret began his political career in President Chirac's RPR, and some speculate he left it for the EN because he saw more room for advancement there. A shrewd analyst, Mr Megret understood that the French left has failed in its vocation of providing social welfare, while the right cannot deliver the economic prosperity it promised. Mr Megret said he, could deliver both; the FN's social wing - the Fraternite francaise - expanded its good works in Vitrolles under Mr Megret's supervision. Only white Frenchmen could apply.

Voting EN has long been portrayed by its French opponents as tantamount to a pact with the devil. But with all of France's traditional political parties discredited by corruption scandals, the FN's populist, throw the rascals out rhetoric is winning converts.