France: Le Pen reinstated
01 January 2001
The far-right leader of the Front National, Jean Marie Le Pen, has regained his seat in the European parliament. Le Pen, who is primarily known for his utterances in support of the policies of Adolf Hitler, was banned from public office for a year after he was convicted of assaulting a woman socialist politician while campaigning in local elections near Paris in 1997. At the end of January the European Court of Justice backed his appeal. They said that the European Parliament did not have the right to ban him according to French law.