The French far-right politician Marine Le Pen has threatened the American pop singer Madonna with legal action and accused her of being an ageing self-publicist after she showed a picture of the National Front (FN) leader superimposed with a swastika on the forehead. The image appeared for a split second on a giant screen during a concert in Tel Aviv last Thursday while Madonna performed her song 'Nobody Knows Me'.
Marine Le Pen, who won 17 percent in last month’s French presidential election and is currently campaigning to win a seat in Sunday’s parliamentary polls, has threatened to sue Madonna if she repeats the stunt when her tour reaches France in July. "We understand how old singers who need to get people talking about them go to such extremes," the ‘Daily Express’ quoted her as saying, adding: “If she [Madonna] does that in France we’ll be waiting.” Le Pen’s deputy Louis Aliot said the party would look into the possibility of filing a law suit against Madonna.
The National Front has previously been linked to anti-Semitism and racism, due in large part to its previous leader Jean-Marie Le Pen - Marine's father - who was repeatedly convicted for racism and for questioning the Holocaust.