Jewish radio station in France disinvites far-right leader after protests

'Radio J', a Jewish radio station in Paris, has cancelled a planned interview with the leader of the extreme-right National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen, after the proposal caused an uproar in the French Jewish community. Le Pen’s FN said it would sue the French Jewish student association UEJF and the anti-Semitism watchdog BNCVA, which had that the FN was still "structually anti-Semitic" - for slander. The French Jewish umbrella organization CRIF also opposed the invitation, saying it would have given Le Pen the “stamp of respectability”. The director of 'Radio J', Frédéric Haziza, said the decision to cancel was taken because it was impossible to do the interview - planned for next Sunday - in “good conditions”.

An opinion poll published over the weekend had Marine Le Pen - who succeeded her father Jean-Marie at the helm of the FN - ahead of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and any possible Socialist candidate in voting intentions for the country’s presidency.