National Front Founder Jean-Marie Le Pen 'Suspended' from Party

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

France's National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended from the far-right party his daughter Marine now leads after a disciplinary hearing Monday, the party said.

A special meeting of party members will be called "in three months" to decide whether to strip him of the title of honorary president, a statement said.

Patience with the 86-year-old rabble-rouser has run thin within the party in recent weeks after he reiterated his view that the Nazi gas chambers were merely a "detail of history" and made comments about defending the "white world."

The elder Le Pen showed up on Monday for a meeting at the National Front (FN) headquarters in Nanterre west of Paris to discuss upcoming regional elections.

But he refused to stick around for a disciplinary hearing called by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over the leadership in 2011.

He told reporters there was no question of his retirement, saying "they will have to kill me."

Marine Le Pen said on Sunday that her father no longer represented the anti-immigration party, which opposes France's membership of the European Union. 

"Jean-Marie Le Pen should no longer be able to talk in the name of the National Front, his comments are against the fixed (party) line," she told French radio.

Marine Le Pen has been actively trying to distance the party from its racist and anti-Semitic image as she plans her bid for the next French presidential election in 2017.

The relationship between her and her father has been particularly rocky in recent months -- both on and off the political playing field. 

Six months ago, Marine stormed out of her father's house after his Doberman dog savaged her Bengal cat to death.

Since his recent slew of controversial interviews, the remaining ties appear to have snapped. 

The elder Le Pen was conspicuously dropped from a line-up of National Front leaders on stage during the party's traditional May 1 rally in Paris.

But determined to upstage his daughter, he nevertheless strode uninvited onto the podium to take the ovation of the crowd.

"I think that was a malicious act, I think it was an act of contempt towards me," Marine said on Sunday.

"I get the feeling that he can't stand that the National Front continues to exist when he no longer heads it."

The spat broke out last month after Le Pen repeated the comments about the Nazi gas chambers and praised France's World War II leader Philippe Petain, who collaborated with the Nazis.

His daughter called the comments "political suicide" and said she would not support her father's bid for the regional polls. 

It was announced that his 25-year-old grand-daughter Marion Marechal Le Pen, who is already a member of parliament, would stand in his place. 

Under Marine Le Pen, the FN has enjoyed a series of election success, notably coming first in last year's European elections.

Comments 0