Three Jewish members of the Nice City Council resigned this week to protest Mayor Jacques Medecin’s alleged cooperation with Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme right-wing National Front.
Le Pen was charged with “incitement to racial hatred” by an investigating magistrate in Paris on March 22 and is expected to stand trial before the end of the year.
Although claiming he is not anti-Semitic, Le Pen has publicly called the Holocaust fraudulent, and has insulted members of Parliament, both Jews and non-Jews, with puns on Holocaust imagery and oblique accusations that Jews are not good French patriots.
The Jewish municipal officials said they could not serve under Medecin after he hosted the National Front’s convention at a Nice municipal hall last weekend. The Jewish officials — Jill-Patrice Cassuto, Andre Sfar and Harry Levy–represent center-right parties.
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