The party of French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen changed its interim leader for the second time in four days on Friday after her first stand-in was accused of praising the work of a Holocaust denier.
Ms Le Pen had on Monday announced she was temporarily stepping aside as leader of the National Front (FN) to remain “above partisan considerations” while campaigning in the second round of the presidential election.
Jean-Francois Jalkh was named as her interim replacement but immediately became embroiled in controversy over remarks about WWII Nazi gas chambers — a subject that has repeatedly tripped up Ms Le Pen.
In an interview for a French academic journal published in 2005, Mr Jalkh had praised the work of Robert Faurisson, a convicted Holocaust denier, according to the author of the journal entitled Le Temps des Savoirs.
Ms Le Pen has sought to purge the FN of the anti-Semitism that has been the hallmark of her firebrand father, party co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.
