Le Pen has thrown down a gauntlet that European leaders must pick up

French elections

France is urged: Just say Non

How Le Pen ripped up the electoral map

Shock waves spread across Europe, while Austria gloats

How the extremists have thrown another rock in the pool

Misery and malice in town that deserted Jospin

Where people live in fear and idolise a racist

Blair: We have to reconnect with voters

The words and policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen

From the French press

Donald Macintyre: The left will have to wake up

John Lichfield: Why does France find it hard to face the future?

The French are not the only people trying to digest the results of the first round of their presidential elections. Most of Europe is, too.

And quite rightly. However one interprets the results in psephological terms, the far right's seizure of the centre stage of French politics is a deeply shocking development for Europe as much as France itself.

All across Europe, the far right has been improving its showing in the past decade. And all across Europe you can ascribe that to similar factors of fear and resentment: fear that a way of life and a national pride was being eroded and resentment that the political establishment was so unresponsive. Mr Le Pen's 17 per cent showing cannot be called a massive swing to fascism. Far from it. It marked only a marginal gain on his results in the previous election. But the almost obscenely low vote for Lionel Jospin or President Jacques Chirac did represent a massive blow to the politics of the centre.

That is the first and most important lesson for politicians elsewhere. If extremism is not to flourish, it is no good "trusting" to the good sense of voters, as Tony Blair's spokesman rather feebly declared yesterday. The politicians of the centre are going to have to fight for the votes. And that means going out to the voter to take on his or her concerns on economic change, asylum and sovereignty. If Britain can claim to have rather less to fear from the National Front than most of the Continent, it is in no small part due to the success of politicians of both the main parties in incorporating these concerns into the mainstream agenda.

Yet to interpret this election in terms entirely of specific policies and their co-option by the parties would be too simplistic and, in the British case, too complacent. There was in the vote for Mr Le Pen – or rather the failure of the vote for his main rivals – a strong sense of disillusionment with the whole character of centrist politics. The differences between the two parties are seen to be too narrow, the politicians too bland and the workings too corrupt. Behind Mr Le Pen's victory lies a 10 per cent fall in voter turnout and more than 70 per cent still turned out. Would that the same could be said here.

The next two weeks will at least see the chance for politics to regain its democratic pride in France as Mr Le Pen and his National Front are forced to debate issues every night on the television. A man who fought an election on a programme of forbidding the building of new mosques, deporting immigrants with relations back home, criminalising abortion and introducing national tariffs on imports surely could not withstand the full heat of national exposure too long.

At the same time, however, the burden of the counter-attack is in the hands of Jacques Chirac, the very kind of politician who has brought the system into most disrepute. It is easy to say that the success of the right could be the best thing to have happened to democracy if it galvanises the centre into action. But it could also lead to even greater centrifugalism, particularly in the elections for France's National Assembly in June.

The more complex issue is what the French result means for the European venture as a whole. Opponents of integration in Britain have been quick to claim it as a victory for their cause. There may be some element of anti-Europeanism in the right's vote. But not much. All the polls in France – as in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and everywhere else the right has been resurgent – show that most people remain firmly pro-European. Indeed, one of the most encouraging recent developments has been how easily the Euro has come in.

The challenge for European politicians in the face of such issues as enlargement, the future of agricultural support and the necessity of economic restructuring is to turn the eyes of voters upwards, to prevent them turning inwards and downward. If Mr Le Pen's success throws down this gauntlet, European leaders should pick it up with enthusiasm.