Another party stalwart, Steeve Briois, mayor of Le Pen’s northern bastion, Hénin-Beaumont, was named to replace Jalkh as temporary party chief while Le Pen campaigns in the critical final stretch ahead of the May 7 vote. Le Pen has reversed the party’s slide into ideological darkness, after a purge of the old guard, including their master, Le Pen senior, when he repeated a statement belittling the Holocaust for which he was convicted. Fellow politicians who refuse to call on voters to block Le Pen “are making a deep, serious, moral and political mistake,” he said. The scandal over alleged remarks by a party vice-president was the second time this month that Le Pen has been cornered by France’s wartime past. Yves Jean, president of the University of Poitiers in western France, is rallying students to vote against Le Pen.

Source: thestar April 28, 2017 17:07 UTC