(JTA) — After being suspended by his daughter from the National Front party he founded, far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen said he will create a new “political movement.”
“I’m not going to create another party, I’m going to create a movement that will not be a competitor to the FN,” Le Pen told Radio Courtoisie on Monday.
Marine Le Pen suspended her father, who founded the National Front party in 1972, last week following a disciplinary hearing over the elder Le Pen’s comments on the Holocaust. Jean-Marie Le Pen told French TV last month that he does not regret saying in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers were “just a detail of World War II.”
Following his suspension, Le Pen said that he was “ashamed that the president of the National Front has my name.”
The National Front is a staunchly right-wing nationalist party that opposes immigration. Marine Le Pen’s stand against her father’s comments is part of her attempts to soften the party’s image and bring it more mainstream success in elections.
