National Front's Jean-Marie Le Pen gives in to daughter's demands

National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has given in to demands from his daughter and party leader Marine Le Pen to step aside by announcing he would not be a candidate in regional elections this year.

The decision signals the 86-year old politician's willingness to end a dispute that has shaken the far-right party following controversial comments about Nazi gas chambers in the media.

Asked by Le Figaro magazine if he would run as the FN candidate for the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur in elections in December, he said: "No, even though I think I was the best candidate for the National Front. If I need to sacrifice [myself] for the party's future, I will not be the one who causes the damage." He later confirmed his decision in a press release.

Last week, father and daughter appeared to escalate a row that reflected fractures within the party following a shift to the left initiated by Ms Le Pen after she took over the party in 2011. Ms Le Pen accused her father of a strategy "somewhere between scorched earth and political suicide" after he reiterated that he thought the gas chambers had been "a detail of the history" of the second world war. She later said the party would consider sanctions.

Late last week Mr Le Pen seemed unwilling to give up the fight, declaring: "Marine Le Pen may want my death, but she cannot count on my help."

Mr Le Pen's repeated provocations in the press over the years have been at odds with his daughter's recent strategy to sanitise the far-right party. She has toned down its anti-immigrant and ethnic-based rhetoric to focus more on economic issues, a tactic that has paid off, with the party attracting about a quarter of votes in French local elections last month, ahead of the ruling Socialist party.

She told the FT in an interview last month that she was committed to leading her party to power in 2017, when presidential elections take place, a goal her father never wanted to achieve: "This is the Front's moment," she said.

Her father may not be the only issue Ms Le Pen has to deal with in her conquest: judges are investigating allegations of illegal campaign financing that could involve her and her inner circle. The FN has denied wrongdoing.

Mr Le Pen's move to pull out from the regional elections may not mean the end of his influence over the party however. In his press release on Monday, he did not acknowledge any misconduct and instead denounced restrictions on his freedom of speech.

He also urged the party to support his 25-year-old granddaughter, Marion Marechal-Le Pen - Marine Le Pen's niece - to replace him as a candidate in the regional elections.

"As long as God lends me life, I will stay in my place at the military post," Mr Le Pen said.

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