Marine Le Pen to launch lawsuit after father filmed with neo-Nazi band

Jean-Marie Le Pen was serenaded by a group known to have ties to an international far-right organisation.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has defended her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, after videos emerged of him singing along with a neo-Nazi band in his home.
The longtime leader of the Front National, since rebranded by his daughter as the National Rally (RN), the 96-year-old Le Pen has been excused from appearing at an ongoing embezzlement trial involving his daughter and numerous staffers.
However, footage now circulating on social media shows him at his home singing along with members of Match Retour, a far-right rock group. In the clip, one of the band’s members can be seen wearing a T-shirt glorifying the Hitler Youth.
Match Retour is known to be affiliated with an international neo-Nazi network known as “Blood and Honour”, which emerged from the UK’s far-right music scene in the 1980s. Its members call for violent action to ensure the “survival of European races”.
The former far-right leader, who horrified France and much of Europe when he made it to the second round of the 2002 presidential election, can be seen happily singing along with the band in the clip.
Marine Le Pen has said she will take legal action against the group and those who allowed them into her father’s house, claiming they took advantage of his frailty and alleged dementia.
“Jean-Marie Le Pen is capable of reciting Musset, but may not know what year it is,” she said in a statement.
In the video, the group’s members sing a Napoleonic song, “Fanchon”, and serenade the aged leader with a specially written piece that specifically references notorious homophobic remarks he made in public in 1997.