France’s National Front (FN) has ousted its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen in an effort to shed its extremist image and increase its chances of taking power in the 2017 presidential election.
In a statement on Thursday night, the party said it had taken the decision to expel the 87-year-old veteran of French politics after a meeting lasting several hours, during which the executive board “deliberated and decided, by the required majority, to exclude Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen as a member”.
The decision is a clear victory for Marine Le Pen, the party’s current leader and Mr Le Pen’s daughter, who has been locked in a power struggle with her father.