Image by Getty Images

Since she was elected president of the National Front in 2011, Marine Le Pen’s grand strategy has been to “de-demonize” the far-right party her father founded, which was known as a haven for Third Reich apologists. This new approach has translated into the near-complete deletion of overt anti-Semitic references in public speeches and the side-lining of the party’s most controversial figures.

Still, the Front’s roots resurface. During the presidential campaign, several members of Le Pen’s close entourage have been suspected of sympathy for neo-Nazi groups and anti-Semitic propaganda. Most recently, two French newspapers, Marianne and Mediapart revealed that, for years, Le Pen’s treasurer published radical posts on Facebook under different pseudonyms for yeares.

Axel Loustau, 46, plays a central role in the National Front. Last week, the far-right leader jumped to his defense when a TV journalist confronted Le Pen with a photo of Loustau seemingly giving a Nazi salute at his birthday party in 2011. “Are you kidding me?,” Le Pen erupted, claiming that her treasurer was simply waving at friends.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Loustau himself took it to Twitter, accusing the journalist of being a “scumbag” before deleting his tweet.

The latest revelations on Loustau show that he used aliases to publish numerous provocative messages. In one of them, he shared a photo of a swastika made up of rice seeds and commented: “A good plate of rice. So easy…” In another post, published in 2013, Loustau reacted to a rise in gas prices in the Parisian region and wrote: “6 million inhabitants bothered with gas…. pppppffff”

Loustau, who has not yet reacted to these disclosures, is a National Front candidate for the legislative election that will take place in June.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount