PARIS (AFP)---French extreme-right presidential candidate
Jean-Marie Le Pen on Monday joined in the broad condemnation from political leaders of a weekend attack on Jewish gravestones in the northern city of Lille.

Le Pen, head of the National Front party, described the desecration of some 50 tombstones in the Jewish section of the Lille cemetery as a "hateful act" and noted that it was a "recurring event" during election campaigns.

He evoked a possible "provocation."

"Attacking cemeteries, of whatever religion, is unbearable and stupid," said Le Pen in an interview to France Info radio.

Earlier, Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, attacked what she called an "ignoble" act, while the Communist candidate Marie-George Buffet expressed her anger and indignation at what she called an "odious" act.

President Jacques Chirac on Sunday ordered the government "to do everything possible to find the perpetrators of this infamy so that they are severely punished."

No graffiti was left on the 51 tombstones in the attack overnight Saturday to Sunday but "many were knocked down, some broken," said Lille prosecutor Philippe Lemaire.

The prosecutor warned that the perpetrators could face between three to five years in prison while some 40 police investigators were put on the case.

The desecration occured on the eve of Pessach, the Jewish Passover.