Jean-Pierre Stirbois, the No. 2 man in the extreme-right National Front after party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, died Saturday in an automobile accident, police said. He was 43. Stirbois attended a political meeting Friday in the city of Dreux, about 60 miles west of Paris, and was traveling toward the capital when his car ran off the road and smashed into a tree at about 2:40 a.m, police said. Stirbois was secretary-general of the National Front and a member of the party leadership since 1981. He was born Jan. 30, 1945 in Paris, held degrees in law and marketing and headed his own printing business. Stirbois was active in several extreme-right political movements before joining the National Front in 1977. In 1982, he won 12.6 percent of the vote in local elections in the district of Eure-et-Loir, west of Paris _ the highest vote percentage in France for a right-wing candidate. A year and a half later, he won the election for deputy mayor of Dreux. Stirbois was elected a deputy in the National Assembly in 1986. He lost his seat in legislative elections last summer. The National Front, founded by Le Pen in 1972, is strongly opposed to France's highly centralized and bureaucratic government and is against personal taxes. It favors the death penalty, priority to French citizens for jobs, and stopping immigration. In the first round of this year's presidential elections, Le Pen won a surprising 14.4 percent of the vote, worrying many who feared the National Front could awaken racist sentiments.
