Le Pen loses his grip on far-right
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.JEAN-MARIE Le Pen lost a legal battle yesterday in his struggle for mastery of the French far-right. A court decided that his rival, Bruno Megret, expelled from the National Front (NF) in December, had the right to continue to use the party's name.
The Tribunal de Grande Instance decided that Mr Megret and his followers had been expelled from the party illegally and had has much right as Mr Le Pen to claim to represent the NF.
The decision makes it virtually certain that French voters will be confronted with two ultra-right, xenophobic parties, both called the National Front, in municipal elections in March and the European elections in June. Mr Megret can now claim legal status for the emergency national conference of the party that he has organised in Marignane, near Marseilles, next weekend.
The meeting is backed by 20,000 of the 40,000 NF members, according to the Megretiste rebels.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments