Wilders won’t say if Le Pen senior can join Eurosceptic alliance

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration PVV, told news agency De Persdienst he would ‘not have done business’ with France’s Front National if its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen had still been in charge.

Le Pen has convictions for anti-semitism and has described the World War II gas chambers as a detail.

Current leader Marine Le Pen has distanced herself from her father but he remains honorary chairman and is leading the Front National’s European election campaign.

Alliance

However, Wilders declined to say if Le Pen senior could be part of a European parliamentary alliance with the PVV which he is trying to form, De Gelderlander said. ‘We will see what happens after the election,’ he is quoted as saying.

Wilders has been criticised by Jewish and other groups for trying to form a alliance with a number of right-wing parties, including the Front National, ahead of May’s European elections.

Wilders has always made support for Israel and Jews a central part of his anti-Islam campaign.

Wilders also said he expects British Eurosceptic party UKIP and the Danish People’s Party to join the alliance. Both have said they will not do so because of the Front National connections.

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