France’s far-right Front National (FN) has expelled its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, following a feud with daughter and party leader Marine Le Pen.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was honorary president, was dismissed after a three-hour extraordinary party congress.
He was initially suspended back in May, after he repeated his view that the Holocaust was “a detail of history”.
Photo Reuters
Marine Le Pen took over as leader in 2011 and has tried to steer the party away from its racist and anti-Semitic past.
The FN was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972. He still holds a seat in the European Parliament and a post as a regional councilor in the south of France.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, 86, launched a legal challenge against his suspension, and on July 2, a court decided to overturn it.
The judge ruled that the correct procedure had not been followed and ordered that an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) be held to discuss his future.
That meeting took place on August 20, and Jean-Marie Le Pen has now been expelled.
His dismissal follows a series of remarks regarded as inflammatory and a feud with his daughter.
Earlier this year Jen-Marie Le Pen restated his characterization of the Holocaust as a “detail” – a view he first expressed in 1987 – and also said he had never considered France’s wartime collaborationist leader Philippe Petain a traitor.
Marine Le Pen has said in the past that her father should “no longer be able to speak in the name of the National Front”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front party, says he is “ashamed” his daughter – current party leader Marine Le Pen – still bears his surname.
Amid a growing feud, Jean-Marie Le Pen said he hoped she “would get married as quickly as possible so as to change her name”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, 86, added he would not support his daughter in presidential elections in 2017.
His remarks came after the far-right party suspended Jean-Marie Le Pen, 86, after he repeated his view that the Holocaust was “a detail of history”.
Marine Le Pen, 46, has been trying to steer the National Front (FN) away from its racist and anti-Semitic past.
Her view is that FN’s growth is being held back by memories of what the far-right party used to be, and that to move to the next level it must cut itself free from its past.
Speaking to France’s Europe 1 radio, Jean-Marie Le Pen said: “I was hoping that the president of the National Front would get married as quickly as possible so as to change her name.
“Because I’m ashamed that she has the same surname as me.”
Asked if he would still be supporting his daughter in the presidential elections, Jean-Marie Le Pen answered: “Not for the moment.”
Jean-Marie Le Pen has been suspended but not dismissed by the party – a decision he described as a “felony”.
An extraordinary party congress is expected to be held within three months aimed at ending the function of honorary president – which Jean-Marie Le Pen has been holding since stepping down as leader in 2011.
Some commentators have suggested Jean-Marie Le Pen could be more of a risk outside the party than within it.
Jean-Marie Le Pen still holds a seat in the European Parliament and a post as a regional councilor in the south of France.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the former leader of France’s National Front, will find out if he is to lose his post of honorary president after a series of inflammatory remarks and a protracted feud with his daughter, Marine Le Pen.
National Front President Marine Le Pen said on the eve of the far-right party’s board meeting that her father should “no longer be able to speak in the name of the National Front”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the National Front (FN) in 1972 and led it until 2011.
Marine Le Pen has tried to steer the nationalist party away from its racist and anti-Semitic past.
The party’s executive was meeting on May 4 in Nanterre near Paris to decide what action to take after Jean-Marie Le Pen repeated his assertion that the Nazi gas chambers were a “detail of history”.
As well as reviving an old anti-Semitic slur, Jean-Marie Le Pen told far-right newspaper Rivarol last month that he had never considered France’s wartime collaborationist leader Philippe Petain a traitor and labeled PM Manuel Valls an immigrant.
It is unclear what penalty the FN’s disciplinary board could impose on Jean-Marie Le Pen, 86, and still a Euro parliamentarian.
Among the options is his total exclusion from the FN, although some French commentators suggested Jean-Marie Le Pen could be more of a risk outside the party than if he were contained within it.
Marine Le Pen was adamant in a broadcast interview that she wanted her father out of the political picture.
“What I wish is that the FN will no longer be taken hostage by provocations that are now becoming recurrent on the part of Jean-Marie Le Pen,” she said.
In her interview on May 3rd, Marine Le Pen said she had the feeling that her father could not bear the thought of the party continuing to carry on without him as leader.
Although Jean-Marie Le Pen was sidelined from the party’s traditional May 1st march on Friday, he took to the stage in defiance while his daughter was delivering a speech.
Last month, in the face of widespread party opposition, Jean-Marie Le Pen abandoned a plan to lead a party list in regional elections in southern France.
The FN has made significant political strides since Marine Le Pen took over the leadership from her father, attempting to sweep away its extremist image but maintaining its anti-immigration policies.
Marine Le Pen is aiming to make the run-off vote for the French presidency in 2017.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s National Front (FN), has announced he is pulling out of regional elections amid a row with his daughter Marine Le Pen.
Marine Le Pen, who now leads the far-right party, condemned her father for his recently repeated claims Nazi gas chambers were a “detail of history”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen told Le Figaro newspaper he would not be standing in the south-eastern Paca region.
But he said he thought he was “the best candidate for the National Front”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen said his granddaughter Marion Marechal-Le Pen would be the best person to stand in his place.
“If she accepts, I think she would head a very good list [of candidates]. She is certainly the best, I am not going to say after me, but she is,” he told the publication.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is FN’s honorary president, did not make it clear whether he would seek a place as a candidate on the list of his granddaughter for the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region.
Marine Le Pen has tried to rid the party of its racist image.
France’s far-right Front National (FN) leader Marine Le Pen has said she will move to stop her father Jean-Marie Le Pen from standing in polls later this year.
In a statement Marine Le Pen said her father’s status as honorary president of the party “does not mean he can take the Front National hostage”.
Last week Marine Le Pen condemned her father for repeating his claim that the Nazi gas chambers were “a detail of history”.
Marine Le Pen is widely expected to run for president in 2017.
In the statement, Marine Le Pen says her father “seems to have entered a veritable spiral between a scorched earth strategy and political suicide”.
“Given this situation, I have told him I will oppose… his candidacy in Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur,” she said.
She said Jean-Marie Le Pen’s “crude provocations seem aimed at harming me but, alas, they have dealt a very heavy blow to the whole movement”.
Earlier this month 86-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party’s founder, gave a radio interview in which he repeated his controversial remarks on the Nazi gas chambers.
His daughter condemned those remarks, leading Jean-Marie Le Pen to declare to a far-right newspaper that “one is only ever betrayed by one’s own”.
Last month the FN polled 25% of votes in the first round of local elections.
While lower than some opinion polls had predicted, correspondents say that performance showed that Marine Le Pen’s strategy, including shutting down the party’s overtly racist elements, is paying off.
Madonna was today threatened with legal action and accused of being an ageing self-publicist after she depicted Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s National Front, as a Nazi during a concert in Israel.
An image of Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead appeared on a giant screen at the singer’s concert in Tel Aviv, Israel on Thursday.
Marine Le Pen has threatened to sue Madonna if she repeats the stunt when her tour reaches France in July.
The politician said: “We understand how old singers who need to get people talking about them go to such extremes.”
Asked if she was likely to sue, Marine Le Pen, 43, said: “If she does that in France, we’ll be waiting.”
Madonna, who will turn 54 in August, is due in France next month, when she will appear at the Stade de France in Paris and then in Nice on the Riviera.
Madonna was today threatened with legal action and accused of being an ageing self-publicist after she depicted Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s National Front, as a Nazi during a concert in Israel
Other sources in the National Front, which has frequently been linked with anti-Semitism and racism, said Madonna had offended all of its members.
“We are not a Nazi party, and object to being depicted as such,” said a source in the party, which won a fifth of the popular vote during the first round of presidential elections in April.
“If you accuse the National Front of being anti-Semitic and racist then you accuse a fifth of the French people of being anti-Semitic and racist.
“If Madonna repeats this slur in France then she will certainly be taken to court.”
Wallerand de Saint-Just, the National Front’s lawyer, confirmed he was looking into the possibility of legal action.
Marine Le Pen pledged to reform the party after taking over the leadership from her notorious father, Jean-Marie Le Pen last year.
He is a convicted racist and anti-Semite who has in the past denied that the Nazi Holocaust actually took place during World War II.
Despite this, Jean-Marie Le Pen came runner-up in the French presidential election in 2002, proving that he had widespread support.
Marine Le Pen has toned down the party’s extremist views, but regularly pledges to limit Muslim immigration, and to clamp down on Islamic culture in France.
Madonna’s depiction of Marine Le Pen appeared as she performed her song Nobody Knows Me in Tel Aviv last Thursday.
Madonna is well known for her provocative acts, and is currently dating a Frenchman called Brahim Zaibat who has a North African Muslim immigrant background.
Marine Le Pen won just under 18% of votes in the presidential election and is currently standing to become an MP in France’s National Assembly.
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