Le Pens at war over race row remarks

Jean-Marie Le Pen. Photo / AP

A family feud has erupted at the heart of France's far right between Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Front National (FN), and her father and the party founder, Jean-Marie, over his alleged anti-Semitism.

Marine Le Pen accuses her father of damaging the Front National with perceived racist comments and he has blamed her for turning the party into an insipid "bizarre" grouping "without substance".

This week, Jean-Marie Le Pen, 85, provoked political outrage, even from within his party, for pledging to make an "oven load" of the Jewish singer Patrick Bruel, a vocal FN critic.

Marine Le Pen joined the chorus of criticism of her father, who is an MEP and the party's honorary president, saying he had committed a "political mistake".

"I am convinced that the meaning attributed to his words stems from a malicious interpretation," she said.

"Nevertheless, given Jean-Marie Le Pen's very long experience, not to have anticipated the way those words would be interpreted is a political mistake and the Front National is suffering the consequences."

Le Pen hit back yesterday, saying the "political fault" lay with his daughter's stewardship of the party he founded in 1972, and which Marine Le Pen has sought to "detoxify", purging it of overt racism and xenophobia.

"I consider the political fault is with those who have aligned themselves to - la pensee unique ['single thought' of the conformist political mainstream]. They would like to resemble the other political parties. If that's the stated aim of some FN leaders, they have succeeded," he told RTL radio station.

Le Pen is clearly irked at the direction the party he led until 2011 is taking despite the fact it has never been so popular, coming first in last month's European elections with 25 per cent of the vote - its best ever electoral showing.

Le Pen is seen by some as a growing liability for his daughter as she tries to forge alliances with other far-right and Eurosceptic groups.

Nigel Farage, the head of the UK Independence Party, has ruled out joining forces, saying the party has anti-Semitism "in its DNA".