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

[Recursion]

Source: Time

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 Petain — a wartime collaborator with the Nazis — to be a traitor.

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

Read more: http://time.com/3846504/jean-marie-le-pen-national-front-france-holocaust-suspension/

[AtheistCrusader]

1. This clown was one Charlie Hebdo took to task on a regular basis.

He's a vicious racist, and his party is actually more open about their racism than our own dmfar right parties in the US.

[Larry Engels]

2. This is a real surprise to me.

I knew that his daughter, Marine, the current Party leader, wanted to distance herself from Jew-baiting and concentrate on Muslim-baiting, but kicking her own father out of the Party is not something I expected.

Well, he's only suspended. Maybe they'll make up. Blood is thicker than water, etc. But this shows how serious she is about moving her Party into mainstream French politics, which will tolerate anti-Islamism, but anti-Semitism--not so much.

[rpannier]

6. Highly Doubtful. This is a feud that has been happening for a while

This article best explains the rift

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/12/front-national-marine-le-pen--jean-marie-le-pen-france-politics

[candelista]

9. "Highly doubtful"? No, this is obviously political.

Are you blaming the family rift on the Dobermans? Well, that's one of the dumbest ideas I have ever seen on this site.

It's political. P-O-L-I-T-I-C-A-L. Everything these people do is political. Anyone who doesn't understand that is a fool, and understands nothing about these fascists. Larry's post has the correct analysis.

[rpannier]

10. They have had issues for over a year

The article did not say that the rift was over the dobermans, it said that was the event at which she moved out that the rift had been going on for some time that it was both personal and political

[rpannier]

11. The highly doubtful was in response to your 'they may make up' comment

[okaawhatever]

3. He's arguing with his party because they want to start hiding their bigotry more now. nt

[rpannier]

8. Not that simple

There are personal issues: he and his daughter have not been getting along for sometime
She's not anti-gay like her father
He seems more than satisfied with being a political outsider. She isn't
She's banned Nazi skinheads from FNP rallies and functions
She's condemned the Holocaust publicly

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/12/front-national-marine-le-pen--jean-marie-le-pen-france-politics

[MADem]

4. He's still beloved by that crew, and his daughter is high on the hog in that group.

She has the wherewithal to make some trouble.

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Facinating.

Seems his opinion is not as uncommon as one might think. I have seen other articles and comments which bear a similar tint. There are number of extremist parties in Europe that seem to be shaking their base. I don't know why.

[rpannier]

7. In the case of the Front National it's a rift

between the younger group that wants to be something more than a sideline bomb thrower and his wing which likes being seen as political outsiders
In some ways, I've often wondered if he actually wants to win

This is an article that I found the does a good job of explaining the rift of the FNP. It's political and personal

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/12/front-national-marine-le-pen--jean-marie-le-pen-france-politics