The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is set to defy requests to stay away from a national ceremony to honour a second world war resistance hero, reports The Guardian.
A spokesperson for Le Pen described President Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion she should not attend the event on Wednesday as “outrageous”.
Missak Manouchian will enter the Panthéon in Paris, France’s mausoleum of revered historical figures, the country’s highest posthumous honour.
In an interview with the communist newspaper L’Humanité, Macron said he was “personally against” representatives from the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) attending the ceremony.
Last week, RN leaders accepted a request by the family of former minister and laywer Robert Badinter not to attend a national event honouring the man who abolished the death penalty in France.
“As for Robert Badinter’s homage, for which RN MPs were absent, the spirit of decency and consideration for history should oblige them to make a choice. Far-right groups would be well advised not to be present, given the nature of Manouchian’s struggle,” Macron told the paper.