Though the Labour Party and the French extreme right might agree in some aspects of their foreign policy, in reality there was no comparison between the two, French Ambassador Didier Destremau said yesterday.
"Both parties are using a lot of arguments to scare the population to tell them the past is always better. But Le Pen wants to build a strong regime where liberties are limited, which I don`t believe is the case with the Labour Party," the French ambassador said.
Mr Destremau was interviewed a day after France voted overwhelmingly to reject Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential runoff election with incumbent Jacques Chirac.
Prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami has drawn a comparison between the anti-EU membership policies of the Labour Party and the French far right ever since the shock of the first round, when Le Pen surprised pundits and beat prime minister Lionel Jospin to second place.
Mr Destremau said that politicians like Dr Fenech Adami had a good political argument in saying that by refusing the EU, the Labour Party was also showing a fear of the future.
Clearly relieved at Sunday`s result, Mr Destremau said that the first election was clearly an eye-opener for French politicians.
"You might not believe me, but after the first round I was very happy. At least the political world was shaken and learnt about its failures," he said.
Had Mr Chirac and Mr Jospin garnered the largest number of votes in the first round, then the French would never have mobilised themselves.
"This shock result, this shame, created tremendously good consequences," he said.
As things turned out, Mr Chirac`s traditional opponents cast their vote for the incumbent president, who was given 82.5 per cent of the vote.
"Politics from now on has to be different. Politicians have to listen to what the disenchanted citizens are saying about issues like security and immigration."
He said he was not surprised with the 17.5 per cent obtained by Le Pen in the second round on Sunday.
One still had to remember that there were several of Mr Chirac`s adversaries who believed that there were a number of issues which needed to be resolved.
In the meantime, in a statement, the Nationalist Party described Sunday`s French result as a strong vote against isolation.
The French people have made sure that their country remained a member of the EU and shut out the person who was threatening the future of the country, the PN said.
In another statement, the Iva Movement expressed satisfaction at the result, which it said had manifested the prosperity offered by the EU.