Overlooked???

With all the talk about the right-wing and nut-wing in the United States, we must not forget about the right-wing in other countries. Take France as an example. In a stunning statement, French far right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen stated that Nazi occupation was not inhumane.

Is this going to be the model that French society is going to follow in the years to come? Or would this Le Pen be like a French Bush?

The French government last night threatened to prosecute the outspoken far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen after he declared in an interview that the Nazi occupation of France during the second world war had not been "particularly inhumane".

In an interview given to an extremist rightwing paper, Rivarol, on the eve of Europe-wide ceremonies to mark the liberation of Auschwitz, Mr Le Pen made light of the tragic consequences of the German invasion of France.

"In France, at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhumane, even if there were a few blunders," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

He made no mention of the 76,000 Jews who were deported from France to concentration camps during the occupation, of whom only 2,500 survived.

CRIF, an umbrella organisation for a number of French Jewish groups, said the remarks were shocking.

"These comments taint the memory of all victims of Nazism - deportees and resistants, and the entire French population, which was subjected for more than four years to the most atrocious of occupations and humiliations," the group said in a statement. In the same interview, timed to coincide with the start of commemorations to mark the end of the second world war, Mr Le Pen
described the Gestapo as a police force which had been there to protect the French nation.

Former members of the French resistance will be equally distressed by his remarks, which gloss over the fact that thousands were killed or deported by the Gestapo.

"It's not only the European Union and globalisation we have to free our country of. It's also the lies about its history, lies that are protected by exceptional measures," Mr Le Pen was quoted as saying.

France's justice minister, Dominique Perben, last night asked the Paris prosecutor's office to open a preliminary inquiry into the remarks immediately.

"I am amazed by the offence which Mr Le Pen is causing to the victims, to their families, to former fighters, to the deported, to everyone who suffered during this black period of our history," he said.

"These comments are unacceptable, and Mr Le Pen must explain himself in court."

Although he has toned down his racist rhetoric in recent years, Mr Le Pen is renowned for his extremist positions, and is infamous for having declared in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers were "a detail" of history. He has been convicted of racism or anti-semitism at least six times.

France was startled in 2002 when Mr Le Pen beat the socialist leader for a one-on-one runoff against President Jacques Chirac, after mounting a powerful anti-immigration and anti-European campaign.

Shocked that a rightwing extremist had managed to secure a substantial share of the vote in the first round of the elections, mainstream French voters of all political persuasions rallied around President Chirac in the second round, giving him 82% of the vote.

France's junior minister for war veterans, Hamlaoui Mekachera, said he had read Mr Le Pen's comments with astonishment. Richard Serero, the director-general of France's Licra anti-racism league, said: "These comments are shabby." It was pointed out that the Gestapo had been "declared a criminal organisation at Nuremberg".

French prosecutors have already opened a judicial investigation into comments made by Mr Le Pen's second-in-command, Bruno Gollnisch.

Last year Mr Gollnisch questioned whether the Nazis had in fact used gas chambers in the Holocaust.