French Far-Right Patriarch Le Pen Leaves Hospital

The elderly founder of France's far-right National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been discharged from hospital after a short stint for a heart problem, a source close to the former party leader said Sunday.

The source said Le Pen was at home, without specifying when exactly he had been discharged after his hospitalization on Thursday just days after a bitter public spat with his daughter Marine who now heads the FN.

"It is a small heart problem, nothing serious. The beast is strong," Le Pen told AFP on Thursday from the hospital.

A party source had linked the medical visit to stress from a highly publicized political blow-up with his daughter, saying it was related to recent "emotional shocks."

Known for his hair-raising comments, Jean-Marie Le Pen vexed his daughter by reiterating his long-held view that the Nazi gas chambers were merely a "detail of history" and making other controversial remarks.

Marine condemned the comments, calling them "political suicide" and the highly-publicized spat that saw the 86-year-old party founder pull out of upcoming regional elections.

His granddaughter Marion Marechal-Le Pen, 25, will take his place in running for a seat in the country's southeast.

The elder Le Pen is also facing disciplinary action from the party.

Under his daughter, who has tried to clean up the party's racist image since taking over the reins in 2011, the FN has enjoyed a series of election successes, notably coming first in last year's European elections.

The anti-immigration National Front advocates that France, a founding member of the European Union, withdraw from the bloc, pull out of the euro and reintroduce the franc.