National Front succession: Le Pen disowns daughter Marine in favor of Gollnisch

Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has declared that his daughter Marine would not succeed him as leader of France's National Front (FN), confirming a clash between the two that risks tearing the far-right party apart. "She is not around any more? That is not a problem, there are lots of people who are not around any more,'' Le Pen told a party meeting on Monday. "There has never been any question of her taking over from me.'' Officially, Marine Le Pen, who wants to modernize the party and expand its electoral base, was away on holiday with her family. Unofficially the party's pugnacious vice-president Bruno Gollnisch, who has long been seen as her father's protégé and political heir, is frustrated with the outrage he repeatedly provokes and has decided to take prolonged leave from the leadership. Her move is said to have been prompted by her father's remark last month in the far-right magazine "Rivarol" that the Nazi wartime occupation of France, during which about 76,000 Jews were deported to death camps, had not been "not particularly inhumane, even if there were a few blunders.'' The comments followed a wave of public revulsion at comments made by Gollnisch, whom Le Pen formally recommended as his successor on Monday.