French court cancels Jean-Marie Le Pen suspension from Front National
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Version 0 of 1. A French court cancelled Jean-Marie Le Pen’s suspension from the far-right Front party on Thursday in a ruling that could relaunch a public feud with his daughter and current party leader, Marine Le Pen. By pushing her maverick father out of the party he founded four decades ago, Marine Le Pen was seeking to prevent him ruining her bid for power. But her 86-year-old father went to the courts to be reinstated in the party. “Mr Le Pen can from tomorrow morning ... start using his office again and all the means that were at his disposal and sit in all the bodies in which he was taking part as honorary president,” lawyer Frédéric Joachim told local media. Related: Front National family feud goes nuclear as Jean-Marie Le Pen disowns Marine The crisis erupted in April, when Le Pen senior reiterated past comments that the Nazi gas chambers were a mere detail of history, and defended Philippe Pétain, the wartime leader who cooperated with Nazi Germany. However the FN deputy leader, Florian Philippot, played down any consequences from the ruling, saying party members were in any case being consulted on cancelling the honorary president title in an online vote that closes on 10 July. “No one thinks that he speaks in the name of the FN any more anyway,” he told BFM TV. Asked if he still had support within the party, Philippot laughed and said there was unanimity behind Marine Le Pen. |