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French court overturns Jean-Marie Le Pen's suspension from Front National

Judges order the far-right party to 'restore' Le Pen's position as honorary president two months after he was ousted by daughter Marine.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

A French court on Thursday cancelled the suspension of Jean-Marie Le Pen from the far-right National Front after he was booted out of the party he founded in a bitter spat with his daughter, reports Yahoo! News.

The court ordered the party to "restore" Le Pen's membership and position as honorary president two months after he was ousted by his daughter Marine, who now leads the party.

It said that while Le Pen's suspension was justified, the party "violated statutory rules" by not specifying it was a temporary measure pending a disciplinary procedure.

Le Pen, 87, was suspended in May over a string of controversial remarks that led to a vicious row with his daughter, whom he publicly disowned.

Marine decided enough was enough after her father repeated his view that the Nazi gas chambers were merely a "detail" of history and also claimed that France had to get along with Russia to save the "white world".

Accusing him of committing "political suicide", she withdrew her support for his bid for election in December regional polls.

Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo! News.