Quarrel set to tear far right apart

They called her "the clone," not just because she shared her father's blond hair and blue eyes, but also because she so closely mimicked his ultra-right views.

Now, it seems, the duplicate wants some opinions of her own - and the future of France's far-right National Front (FN) has suddenly darkened at the prospect of a family feud.

The father and daughter are Jean-Marie Le Pen, the FN's 76-year-old founder and autocratic head, and his youngest progeny, Marine, 36, the party's vice-president.

Marine is distancing herself from her father and the FN, leaving a party in the hands of its ageing chief and hardline cronies.

The cause for the upset is the nationwide anger stirred up when Le Pen contended that the Nazis' 1941-44 occupation of France was not so bad.

"In France at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhumane, even if there were excesses," he told far-right publication, Rivarol.

The remarks were classic provocation by Le Pen, a believer that any publicity is good publicity. He is now under investigation by the public prosecutor on suspicion of denying war crimes and crimes against humanity.

But the controversy has wrecked Marine Le Pen's long-running effort to modernise the FN's image, backed by a slick marketing campaign and creation of a youth wing, Generations Le Pen. Her goal is to move the party's appeal away from immigrant-hating pensioners and more towards the up-and-coming generation of economically vulnerable whites.

Marine Le Pen "is furious", according to a source close to her.

She dived out of sight after Le Pen's remarks were published on January 7 and waited 13 days before resurfacing. She said she would not attend the next meeting, on February 25, of the FN's senior body, the Politburo, supposedly because she had booked a family skiing holiday.

She refused to be drawn into commenting on her father's remarks. "The FN deserves more than to be characterised by individual quarrels," she said, before adding: "I am taking a bit of step back with regard to the various jobs that I have. I want to reflect on what I can bring to the political debate."

Jean-Francois Touze, a fellow FN councillor for the Ile-de-France region surrounding Paris, spilt the beans.

"She will not be attending senior party meetings in order to avoid having to support a political line that she does not approve 100 per cent," he said.

Jean-Marie Le Pen has played down any talk of a rift. "We don't have any problems," he said. "it's not my comments which are painful for Marine, but the false accusations which are made against me."

Less than three years ago, the one-eyed former paratrooper shocked the country by scooping nearly 17 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections.

Le Pen edged out the Socialists' candidate, Lionel Jospin, to fight presidential incumbent Jacques Chirac, in the final round, a first for any right-wing radical. He was trounced, but his success ensured his message was no longer ignored.

Today, however, the FN is facing the typical problems of far-right parties everywhere: how to evolve beyond the charismatic leader.

Marine Le Pen is said to be popular with the rank and file, whose votes got her into the European Parliament and her seat as head of the FN bloc on the Ile-de-France council.

But the middle-aged male hardliners at the top of the party bitterly opposed her elevation a couple of years ago to party vice-president.

Chief among her enemies is Bruno Gollnisch, the official deputy leader who for years was considered Le Pen's political heir until Marine's rise.

The daily Liberation said the stage was now set for a night of the long knives within the FN, with the hardliners set to crush Marine Le Pen and her supporters.

If Marine walks out, or if the party rips itself apart over her, no one should doubt her father's ability to bounce back. In 1986, his angry ex-wife, Pierrette, took revenge on him by posing nude in Playboy magazine.

In 1998, one of his lieutenants, Bruno Megret, quit the FN and set up a rival group, taking with him Le Pen's oldest daughter, Marie-Caroline. Le Pen blasted them as "felons" and set about plotting their destruction.

Dysfunctional the Le Pen dynasty may be, but no one should doubt the energies or resilience of the old man, whose boast is that he says aloud what the average citizen quietly thinks. That strategy has been so successful that, according to opinion polls, the FN can depend on the support of at least 10 per cent of the French electorate, even on bad days.