Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has announced that she will step down as leader of her National Front (FN) party. "This evening I decided to take my leave of the presidency of the National Front," she told TV channel France 2. She told France 2 that France is approaching a "decisive moment". Le Pen took over the FN leadership from her father in January 2011 and helped her party secure big gains in regional elections. She won 7.6 million votes on Sunday - the strongest ever result for a FN candidate, and 2.8 million more than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won in 2002.

Source: The Star April 24, 2017 19:52 UTC