Daughter succeeds Le Pen as leader

France’s far-right National Front party has elected the daughter of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as its new president.

France’s far-right National Front party has elected the daughter of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, as its new president.

Marine Le Pen, the 42-year-old daughter of the far-right firebrand, won slightly more than two-thirds of the vote in an election at a party convention in the central French city of Tours.

The party said today that she easily beat the other candidate, long-time party number two Bruno Gollnisch.

The 82-year-old party founder bid farewell yesterday with an impassioned defence of his polemic
anti-immigration, anti-Islam platform. He created the party in 1972.

A mother of three, Marine Le Pen is widely seen as the kinder, gentler face of a party known for its extreme stances.