Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Papa Le Pen Disowns Daughter as French Right Wing Feud Deepens

Image by getty images

National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen disowned his daughter and party leader Marine on Tuesday after she suspended him from the far-right French movement, saying he hoped she would lose the 2017 presidential election.

The party’s executive committee, chaired by Marine Le Pen, suspended his membership on Monday and said it would strip him of his title of honorary chairman after he repeated his view that Nazi gas chambers were a mere “detail” of World War Two.

Marine Le Pen, who succeeded her father as party chief in 2011, has sought to rid the party of its anti-Semitic image and position it as an anti-immigrant Eurosceptic force to woo voters before the 2017 presidential elections.

The war of words between them escalated after his suspension, with the former paratrooper saying it would be “scandalous” if she were to become head of state.

“I’m ashamed that the president of the National Front has my name,” he said in an interview with Europe 1 radio on Tuesday. Late on Monday, he had already suggested his daughter get married so as to change her family name.

Opinion polls indicate she could make it to the second round of the 2017 election but not win. There has been no clear poll evidence so far of an overall impact on her popularity with voters, or of the party as a whole.

Sciences Po university’s Pascal Perrineau said he did not expect the suspension and possible expulsion of Le Pen senior would lead to a break-up of the National Front, as in 1998 when his longtime ally Bruno Megret broke off to form his own party.

His granddaughter, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, has also been drawn into the fight.

She told Le Figaro newspaper she had requested more time from the National Front to decide whether to represent them in the southern Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur – her grandfather’s stronghold – in December regional elections as she did not want to be at the heart of the family conflict.

“A more neutral candidate could perhaps be preferable in the interest of the movement … I have no wish to be taken hostage by Jean-Marie Le Pen, in particular,” she said.

Several senior National Front party members said Jean-Marie Le Pen’s reaction merely justified Tuesday’s decision.

“Internal democracy functioned perfectly within the National Front and the decision is perfectly clear,” party treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just said on BFM TV

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $325,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.