Paris--He labels gas chambers a "detail of history", believes Nazi occupation of France was not all bad, wants to join with Russia to save the "white world" and says he understands why some fight democracy.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, a former paratrooper whose inflammatory speeches has made him the figurehead of France's far right for more than four decades, has not once veered away from the role he loves best -- master provocateur.
Even after handing the reins of the National Front he co-founded to his daughter Marine in 2011, the 86-year-old has continued to come out with shock statements that have cast a shadow on her attempts to steer the party into the mainstream -- to the point of no return.
On Wednesday, after yet more sorties on gas chambers, immigration and attacks on his daughter, Marine decided enough was enough and openly split with her father whom she said was committing "political suicide".
Accusing the FN's honorary president of making "crass provocations that appear aimed at harming me", she said she would oppose his standing in December regional elections in what was described as a "total and definitive" split between father and daughter.
The end of the road for the former Foreign Legionnaire?
Not necessarily. If anything, the man who became an orphan in his teens, fought in the brutal wars of Indochina and Algeria and survived an attack on his home, is a born fighter.
"Le Pen never harbours regrets. He has this idea that if someone attacks you, you respond three times as strongly," says Nicolas Lebourg, a French far-right expert.
"He thinks that politics is a matter of life and death."
A gifted orator, Le Pen has long railed against the establishment parties of the left and right, accusing them of leading the country to the brink of disaster, but his signature issue has always been immigration.
AFP
