The suggestion by a French presidential candidate that the Bastille Day military parade should be abolished continued Saturday to elicit virulent reaction across the country's political spectrum, according to AP. Environmentalist party candidate Eva Joly's suggestion Thursday that the traditional military display be replaced by citizens' parades has garnered withering criticism from both right and left that has dominated news bulletins here for days. Prime Minister Francois Fillon claimed that Norwegian-born Joly - a former anti-corruption judge who was named as the presidential candidate of the Europe Ecologie Les Verts party earlier this week - "doesn't have a very long tradition of France's traditions, French values or French history." Joly struck back on Saturday, denouncing Fillon's comments as "dangerous." "I will not allow my patriotism to be put in doubt," Joly is quoted as saying on newsweekly Le Point's website. "I am no less French than those who refuse me the right to express myself. "Pretending to defend the (French) republic by firing up the demons of (ethnic) origin is a dangerous hypocrisy," said Joly, who has lived in France for decades and leapt to national prominence in 1990s, with a high-profile corruption case against French oil giant Elf. Joly made her initial comments at a gathering of human rights advocates on Bastille Day, the national holiday marking the July 14, 1789, storming of the Bastille prison in Paris by angry crowds, which helped spark the French Revolution. France's two-round presidential race is to take place in April and May of next year. Neither the opposition Socialists nor the governing conservative UMP party have yet announced their candidates, though incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy is widely expected to be the UMP candidate.
