Jean-Marie Le Pen Says He Won’t Run as a National Front Candidate in France
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Version 0 of 1. PARIS — The founder of the far-right National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, sidestepped what could have been an ugly, full-on confrontation with the party’s current leadership, headed by his daughter Marine Le Pen, and announced on Monday that he would not run in regional elections this year. At the same time, in what was interpreted as one more swipe at his daughter, Mr. Le Pen made clear that those who hew to his bluntly anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic views should look to his granddaughter Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, whom he anointed as the best candidate to serve in his stead. The feud between Mr. Le Pen and Marine Le Pen has become increasingly public over the last few weeks, laying bare fissures in the far right over Ms. Le Pen’s efforts to move the party into the mainstream and her 86-year-old father’s habit of provoking criticism for his derisive comments about the Holocaust, the Roma and immigrants. In a statement on Monday, Mr. Le Pen, who has had several convictions for inciting racial hatred, said, “I would not want to do anything that would compromise the fragile hope for France’s survival that the National Front, with its strengths and weaknesses, represents.” Yet political scientists say that his anointing of his granddaughter was more evidence of a split within the party between those who prefer Mr. Le Pen’s brand of vilification of minorities and immigrants and the broader group of constituents Ms. Le Pen has tried to attract with her economic stands and more nuanced anti-immigrant positions. Whether his announcement had papered over those divisions or deepened them was unclear, however, since Ms. Le Pen had yet to comment. The National Front has become one of the strongest parties in France, increasing its share of votes in the last few years, most notably since Ms. Le Pen took it over from her father. Although she strongly supports France’s withdrawal from the European Union and the abandoning of the euro, as well as sharp reductions in social benefits for immigrants, those views appear closer to the mainstream than those of her father. In recent interviews, he refused to back away from his statement that the Nazi gas chambers were a “detail of history,” and he lauded Marshal Philippe Pétain, France’s World War II leader, who collaborated with the Nazis. Mr. Le Pen also called into question the patriotism of France’s prime minister, Manuel Valls, who was born in Spain. The statements seemed to be the last straw for Ms. Le Pen, who said she had already told her father that she planned to prevent him from running in the coming regional elections. “Jean-Marie Le Pen seems to have descended into a strategy somewhere between scorched earth and political suicide,” she said. Ms. Le Pen’s attempt to cast the party in a more palatable light helped the National Front win first place in France in last year’s European Parliament elections. The party has also performed well in recent local elections. The next local elections are in December, when France will elect regional representatives.. Ms. Le Pen acknowledged that the recent interviews her father had given to two far-right publications had precipitated a “grave crisis for the National Front.” “His status as honorary president does not give him the right to hijack the National Front with vulgar provocations seemingly designed to damage me, but which unfortunately hit the whole movement,” she said. Ms. Le Pen’s strong comments and her announcement that she would hold a meeting of the party’s executive bureau to determine what to do about her father’s provocations suggested to some that he might be expelled from the party. That has not yet happened, and Mr. Le Pen’s decision may have forestalled it. Still, his announcement not to run has amounted to a concession to his daughter’s wishes and an acknowledgment of her right to shape the party’s message. |