FAMILY PUNCH-UP CHEZ LE PEN

Jean-Marie Le Pen Has Been Suspended From France’s National Front Party

Time: Helen Regan @hcregan May 4, 2015

The party's founder called the Holocaust "a detail of history"

France’s far-right National Front (NF) party suspended its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen Monday, in response to a series of controversial remarks he made about the Holocaust.

Le Pen holds the honorary position of “president for life” of the NF, but a party congress is expected to meet in the next three months to decide whether to abolish this title, reports the BBC.

The 86-year-old, who founded the party in 1972, had called the Holocaust of World War II “a detail of history.” He also told a French far-right newspaper last month that he never regarded Philippe Pétain — a wartime collaborator with the Nazis — to be a traitor.

The suspension won’t affect Le Pen’s European Parliament seat, however.

Le Pen handed over the party’s leadership to his daughter, Marine Le Pen, in 2011, and since then she has tried to distance the NF from its racist and anti-Semitic past.

Before Monday’s hearing she condemned her father’s behavior, saying he should “no longer be able to speak in the name of the National Front.”

bb1 wrote:Oh dear!

France National Front: Jean-Marie Le Pen 'ashamed' his daughter has his name

Marine Le Pen (right) has made it clear she wants her father (left) out of politics

France's National Front party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen says he is "ashamed" his daughter - current party leader Marine - still bears his surname.

Amid a growing feud, Mr Le Pen said he hoped she "would get married as quickly as possible so as to change her name".

He added he would not support Marine in presidential elections in 2017.

His remarks came after the far-right party suspended Mr 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.

Ms Le Pen's view is that FN's growth is being held back by memories of what it used to be, and that to move to the next level it must cut itself free from its past, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris reports.

French media on father-daughter feud

Dominique Albertini in Liberation notes that Marine Le Pen "dealt with the paternal problem in the most radical way."

Le Parisien goes further, saying that the move was the "denouement of an unprecedented political and family crisis" and describes her decision as "Oedipal".

But some regional papers say that Mr Le Pen could still be dangerous.

Patrice Chabanet in the Journal de la Haute-Marne warns Marine to guard against her father who "is not a man to be dictated to" and warns of his "capacity to do harm".

Laurent Bodin in L'Alsace agrees, saying that even outside the party, her father is a "thorn" in its side.

'Felony'

Speaking to France's Europe 1 radio, Mr 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, Mr Le Pen answered: "Not for the moment."

Mr 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 Mr Le Pen has been holding since stepping down as leader in 2011.

Some commentators have suggested he could be more of a risk outside the party than within it.

Mr Le Pen still holds a seat in the European Parliament and a post as a regional councillor in the south of France.

Jean-Marie Le Pen: A career in controversy

1987 - First makes his infamous remarks describing the Holocaust as a "detail of history"

1997 - Assaults rival Annette Peulvast-Bergeal during parliamentary election campaign

2006 - One of many convictions for inciting racial hatred over inflammatory remarks about France's Muslim population

2007 - Tells Le Monde newspaper "you can't dispute the inequality of the races"

2015 - Repeats views on the Holocaust, prompting Marine Le Pen to accuse him of trying to "rescue himself from obscurity"

lily wrote:That photo of the man in red looks scary...........