Jean-Marie Le Pen sits daughter across memoirs

paris - It is no coincidence that Jean-Marie Le Pen released his memoirs yesterday. With his long-awaited, personal history, he draws attention to himself when his daughter Marine tries to pull the National Front out of the doldrums.

'Son of the nation', 400 pages thick, appeared in an edition of 50,000 copies and according to his publisher is almost sold out. Part one of the memoirs covers the period from his birth in 1928 to the establishment of the Front National (FN) in 1972.

In the book, Le Pen, who is already known as a Holocaust denier, racist and homophobic, shows a more humane side of himself. But he is not afraid to once again defend the collaborating Marshal Pétain, as he did earlier in interviews. Le Pen describes how he found his father, a fisherman who sailed with his boat at a German mine in 1942, dead on the beach. And how in 1953, as chairman of the law student association Corpo, he set up a relief campaign for the flood disaster in the Netherlands. He denies that he tortured when he fought in Algeria.

The timing of the publication serves a purpose. Next weekend, the FN will hold its sixteenth congress in the city of Lille. Foreword Marine Le Pen has been struggling to climb out of the valley since her election defeat in 2017, and wants to thoroughly reform the party. Le Pen senior, who in part 1 is not yet elaborating on his daughters but already says he feels sorry for Marine, will not be there next weekend. He has been expelled as a member, but is still honorary chairman. That function is most probably canceled in Lille.

Part two of the memoirs will be released at the end of this year.