![](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02935/marine-le-pen2_2935765b.jpg?imwidth=680)
France's Front National party expels founder Jean-Marie Le Pen
Party president Marine Le Pen, the elder's daughter, has been trying for months to oust her father, who held the title of honorary president for life
![](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02935/marine-le-pen2_2935765b.jpg?imwidth=680)
Jean-Marie Le Pen was expelled from the French far-Right Front National on Thursday as his daughter Marine continued to distance the party from her father’s anti-Semitic reputation and move it into the political mainstream.
His expulsion marked the culmination of a highly public four-month feud between the 87-year-old firebrand who co-founded the FN and his daughter, who has moderated the tone of the party since she took control four years ago.
Mr Le Pen was hauled before the party’s executive committee and questioned for three-and-a-half hours about his recent inflammatory comments minimising the Holocaust and defending a wartime leader who collaborated with the Nazis.
He emerged smiling from the disciplinary hearing and told reporters: “My head is still on my shoulders.” But hours later, the committee said it had voted to exclude him from the party he led for nearly four decades.
The Holocaust remarks embarrassed Ms Le Pen as she appeared to be enjoying some success in broadening the party’s appeal.
Ms Le Pen stayed away from the hearing to avoid giving the impression that the FN was dominated by a dysfunctional political dynasty.
Mr Le Pen said he was “indignant” that he had been the victim of an “ambush” by a “rump political bureau”. He said his daughter "excludes everyone who isn't 100 per cent in agreement with her," admitting that the breakdown in their relationship was "painful". He vowed to attend the party conference next month.
After the announcement, Ms Le Pen, 47, said it was a “logical” outcome: “Jean-Marie Le Pen started a process, knowing what the result would be, multiplying his mistakes over many weeks.”
The complex relationships within the Le Pen political dynasty recall the plot of King Lear. A daughter takes power and reins in her unruly father who is trying to cling to authority. Mr Le Pen has been a role model and political mentor for his daughter for most of her life.
In a sign of the depth of his anger with her, he said at the weekend he would not vote for her in the 2017 election. He has also indicated that he may stand in regional elections in December against an official FN candidate.
Some of the FN old guard will remain faithful to Le Pen père but most party members are jubilant that his daughter is managing to attract voters from the centre-Right and the Left who are disillusioned with France’s two big parties.
Mr Le Pen has long disapproved of his daughter's attempts to reform the FN. He was reportedly jealous of her electoral results and detested her right-hand-man, the openly gay Florian Philippot, whom he blamed for the rift. Polls show Ms Le Pen on track to make it to the second round of the presidential election in 2017.
Mr Le Pen said he would go to court to overturn the decision. He has already won three court cases over his earlier suspension from the party and his daughter’s moves to strip him of his post as honorary chairman.