French lawmaker suspended

Co-founder under fire for comments

PARIS — French farright leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended Monday from the National Front party he built into a political force over four decades after a series of controversial remarks about Jews and Nazis put him on the fast track to disgrace.

The party’s executive bureau met Monday and decided to suspend Le Pen’s membership in the party he co-founded, pending a partywide vote on abolishing the position of honorary president for life.

In a statement, the party said a majority of its leadership supports doing away with that title, held by 86-year-old since 2010.

Le Pen was censured after he had reiterated that Nazi gas chambers were a “detail” of World War II, for which he had already been convicted in court, and had praised the head of the collaborating Vichy government.

Monday’s suspension doesn’t affect Le Pen’s Eu- ropean Parliament seat, according to party spokesman Alain Vizier.

Le Pen has been a thorn in the side of party leaders since he turned over the presidency to his daughter, Marine Le Pen, in 2011. She has worked to transform the anti-immigration party while keeping a steady focus on traditional party themes such as immigration and security, and railing at what she claims is the “Islamization” of France.

“I think he should no longer speak in the name of the National Front,” Marine Le Pen said Sunday on iTele.