Jewish as well as Muslim leaders have lamented the success of the French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in getting through to the second round in the presidential contest, and warned voters now to reject the 'dangerous' candidate.
Le Pen came second on Sunday after the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron, with 21.53 per cent of the vote to Macron's 23.74 per cent. The two candidates now face off against each other for the second round of voting on 7 May.
The President of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor yesterday described Le Pen as 'dangerous' and added that it was 'extremely regrettable that more than one in five French voters voted for Le Pen'.
Kantor pointed out that Le Pen, who has temporarily stepped down as National Front leader, recently 'made comments against the historic record of the Holocaust, which makes her no less dangerous than her Holocaust-denying father who she has tried to hide'.
He was referring to comments made by Le Pen earlier this month when she denied that France was responsible for rounding up more than 13,000 Jews at a Paris cycle track to be sent to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, a senior French Islamic leader also used the word 'dangerous' and called on the country's 5 million Muslims to 'vote massively' to elect Macron.
Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of Paris's Grand Mosque, described the final May 7 vote 'decisive for the destiny of France and its religious minorities'.
He said: 'The Grand Mosque of Paris and its National Federation call on Muslims in France to vote massively for candidate Emmanuel Macron'.
Without referring explicitly to Le Pen, Boubakeur added that French citizens must comprehend the 'threat embodied by xenophobic ideas dangerous to our cohesion'.
Le Pen launched an attack yesterday against Macron, presenting him as inexperienced and saying he would be 'weak' in facing Islamic terrorism.
In a conversation with reporters, she said: 'I am going out to meet with the French people in order to draw their attention to important matters, including Islamic terrorism, which Mr. Macron speaks about with gentle, weak words.'
