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Front National website to drop Jean-Marie Le Pen’s video-blog

France’s far-right Front National (FN) is to drop the video-blog of its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen from its website. The move follows a storm over an allegedly anti-Semitic wisecrack the party’s 85-year-old honorary president made in the latest posting.

Happy families? Front National president Marine Le Pen with Jean-Marie Le Pen
Happy families? Front National president Marine Le Pen with Jean-Marie Le Pen Reuters/Jean-Paul Pelissier
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The video-blog will no longer be hosted by the FN’s official website for “legal reasons”, party lawyer Wallerand Saint-Just announced on Tuesday.

Le Pen caused a storm with a remark that was taken to be a reference to the Nazi holocaust and his daughter, Marine, who took over the party leadership in 2011, described it as a “political mistake”.

See: Le Pen’s ‘anti-Semitic’ wisecrack throws Front National into turmoil

The offending posting was taken down but Saint-Just said the decision to axe it was because of the risk of legal action.

Marine Le Pen has been the subject of legal action in her capacity of director of publication of the site because of some of her father’s statements, he said, and the party has decided to act to prevent any further such problems.

Marine Le Pen’s condemnation of her father’s statement was “monumental hypocrisy”, Socialist MPs’ spokesperson Annick Lepetit said on Tuesday, pointing out that she had not criticised the substance of his remarks.

 Marine Le Pen has embarked on an effort to clean up the FN's image without breaking with he father, who has substantial support in the party.

Background: Has Marine Le Pen made France's Front National respectable?

 

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