Le Pen ‘may not stand in election'
FN founder hints he may not run for presidency of PACA region, but says grand-daughter Marion should stand in his place
JEAN-MARIE Le Pen, the founder and honorary president of France’s far-right Front National, has hinted that he may not stand in December’s regional elections, as a family rift threatens to split the party.
In Journal Du Dimanche, M Le Pen appeared to backtrack an earlier announcement that he still intended to seek the party’s candidacy for the presidency of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region despite the deep division with his daughter, party leader Marine Le Pen.
He said that he would make his decision to stand public tomorrow.
But, he anointed his grand-daughter, Marion Maréchal Le Pen - who more closely shares his views than daughter Marine - as the “only one” he could see as running in his place.
“If I was not a candidate, I only see Marion. There is no other personality is much fame and distinction in the National Front for the region,” he said.
On Friday, he is due to face questions from the party’s leadership over comments in a recent TV interview - which he then repeated in the ultra-right weekly Rivarol - in which he described the Holocaust as a “detail” of history, and said that he believed France’s collaborationist World War Two leader, Marshal Philippe Pétain, had been unfairly judged by history.
The comments are nothing new, but are an embarrassment for the party, ahead of this year’s regional elections, and in the run-up to the 2017 Presidential ballot.
Last Wednesday, Marine Le Pen issued a statement opposing her father’s candidacy in the upcoming regional elections. A day later, she announced that she planned to launch disciplinary proceedings against her father, and urged him to withdraw from politics.
She told TF1 News: “Jean-Marie Le Pen should show some good sense and draw the appropriate conclusion from the trouble he has himself created and perhaps end all his political activities.”
On Friday, M Le Pen insisted he would still seek the party’s candidacy, despite the disciplinary meeting. He accused his daughter “dynamiting” the party he created four decades ago. Referring to the upcoming disciplinary meeting, he said: “I will defend myself and I will probably attack”.
Meanwhile, a survey published today in Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui reveals that 91% in France believe the 86-year-old should retire from politics. Even 87% of Front National’s supporters polled think that it is time for the party’s founder to stand down.
Only 3% believe his expulsion from the party would have a detrimental effect on its public image.
Photo: Kenji-Baptiste Oikawa / Wikimedia Commons
