'Anti-Semitism can be funny'
2006-12-21 18:31
Paris - French far-right leader Jean-Marie
Le Pen, who has been trying to soften his image to attract new
voters before next year's presidential election, said on
Thursday he believed anti-Semitism could be funny.
Le Pen, leader of the National Front who shocked France by
finishing second behind President Jacques Chirac in the 2002
election, recently attended a show by controversial comedian
Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala.
The black comic was fined by a French court for anti-Semitic
comments in 2004.
Asked on BFM radio whether it was Dieudonne's anti-Semitism
that he found funny, Le Pen responded: "Yes, that can also be
funny.
:There should be no subject that escapes criticism or
irony. It all depends on how it is treated.
"You know the people who mock Jews the most, are Jews
themselves. There's a Jewish form of humour that is very famous
and well-known."
Racial hatred
Le Pen - who received 16.9% of votes in the 2002
election - was convicted and fined in 1990 for inciting racial
hatred and for saying in 1996 that the gas chambers used by the
Nazis were "merely a detail" of World War Two.
He faces another trial next year for saying in 2005 that
"the German occupation was not particularly inhumane".
In June,
he said the French soccer team had too many black players.
Recent polls have shown increased support for the National
Front, although he is
lagging behind Socialist presidential hopeful Segolene Royal and
the likely candidate from the ruling UMP party, interior
minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
On Wednesday, another far-right politician, Bruno Megret,
said he and his National Republican Movement (MNR) would support
Le Pen next year, a move likely to boost his poll chances.
Le Pen still has to secure 500 signatures of support from
mayors across France to take part in the election.
He told BFM
he had already gathered more than 400.
- Reuters