Le Pen: Jean-Marie excluded from France's Front National

By Euronews • Updated: 20/08/2015

Jean-Marie Le Pen has been suspended from France’s National Front, the party he co-founded.

I expressed the wish that this episode be a stage towards an effective reunification of the National Front.

The Honorary Party President triggered the showdown by repeating his view that the Nazi gas chambers were a “mere detail” of the Second World War.

MORE: Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of French far-right party National Front, formally excluded after hearing: http://t.co/JYGaDhGNBm
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 20, 2015

After the three-hour hearing in Paris, the 87-year-old called on the party to unite:

“I wanted to treat those facing me not as judges, because I rejected them as such, but as fighting comrades and I expressed the wish that this episode, which has been rather polemic, be a stage towards an effective reunification of the National Front.”

Watchers say it is the far-right party’s latest attempt to neutralise a family feud that could hurt his daughter Marine’s bid for the upcoming presidential election.