Former French interior minister announces candidacy for president

Jan 29

PARIS - Saying the Sept. 11 attacks show that France needs to get tougher, former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua on Tuesday declared himself a candidate in this spring's presidential race.

"Despite its modernity and vitality, France is no longer respected," he said. "Society is decomposing in an alarming way."

Pasqua, who heads the conservative Rally for France party, said the attacks against New York and Washington serve as "a vivid demonstration of the need for a strong state that relies on a sovereign people."

Pasqua, interior minister from 1986-88, sounded other tough-on-crime themes. He favors bringing back the death penalty in France and tighter immigration laws.

"Clandestine immigration is out of control and an intolerant form of Islam is prospering in our neglected suburbs," he said.

He dismissed President Jacques Chirac and Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin as "joint managers" with similar politics and interchangeable agendas. Both Chirac and Jospin are widely expected to run in the two-round presidential race, although neither has declared his candidacy.

Pasqua, who left Chirac's conservative Rally for the Republic party in 1999 to found his own conservative party, Rally for France, is running for the nation's highest office despite the fact that he is under investigation in several probes.

In one case, Pasqua was placed under formal investigation in May 2001 for illegal campaign financing, abuse of public money and influence trafficking in connection with his 1999 campaign for European Parliament.