ANKARA
The leader of France's far right National Front, Marine Le Pen, has said she will oppose her father's candidacy in regional elections due in late 2015 following his recent controversial comments on Nazi gas chambers, according to a statement on the National Front's webpage.
Marine Le Pen said in a statement on Wednesday that her father's "status as honorary president does not give him the right to take hostage of the National Front with such harsh provocations seemingly designed to harm me, unfortunately it's a great blow to the entire movement."
The statement said: "It looks like Jean-Marie Le Pen has entered a veritable spiral between a scorched-earth strategy and political suicide and given this situation, I inform him that I will oppose his candidacy in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'AZur."
Marine Le Pen said in the statement: "I have informed Jean-Marie Le Pen that I will oppose his candidacy in Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur during the party's meeting on April 17."
Gas chambers 'a detail'
Marine Le Pen made the comments after her father reaffirmed his opinion on World War II in an interview with Rivarol, a weekly magazine that was due to be published on Thursday but leaked on Tuesday, in which he said the Nazi gas chambers (used in the Holocaust) were a "mere detail" of World War II.
He also defended France's Marshal Petain, who sided with the Nazis during the war, saying he was not a traitor of northern Europe during World War II.
Louis Aliot, the National Front's vice-president also condemned Jean-Marie le Pen, saying the "comments are scandalous and our political disagreements are now irreconcilable."
Jean Marie Le Pen has been convicted several times for racism, inciting racial hatred and denying or minimizing the Holocaust, which are crimes in France.
High scores
In November 2014, the 86-year old founder of France‘s far-right National Front was found guilty of racial defamation and ordered to pay a €5,000 ($5,400) fine.
The anti-Europe, anti-immigration party was founded by Jean Marie Le Pen in 1972, but has been led by his daughter since 2011.
Since she became the head of the party, she has apparently not been close to her father because of his racist and anti-Semitic comments.
The far-right National Front is not represented in the French national government and failed to win a single department in March regional elections despite historically high scores at the local level.
