Le Pen promises to sanction those who make “unacceptable comments” but asks to distinguish them from “gross errors”

The leader of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le-Pen, has promised to sanction candidates and members of her party who make “inadmissible comments”, but has stressed the importance of differentiating them from those who have simply made “gross mistakes” in their statements.

Several candidates from the French far right have been the subject of controversy for racist and xenophobic statements that have led the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, to acknowledge that there may be “black sheep” in the party and he has not hesitated to expel them and withdraw his candidacy for the second round of the legislative elections.

In this case, Le Pen has alluded to the statements of the candidate for the third constituency of Mayenne, Paule Veyre de Soras, who said that in the National Rally there are “Jews, Muslims and Spaniards”, and who, with the intention of denying being racist, said that she herself went to a “Jewish ophthalmologist and a Muslim dentist”.

“There are comments that are unacceptable and will certainly lead to sanctions, but there are also comments that are clumsy,” said Le Pen in an interview with BMFTV, where she referred to the case of Veyre de Soras, whose approach she acknowledged was “clumsy” but that “objectively, it is not proof of racism.”

Le Pen also blamed certain media outlets, which she described as “grand inquisitors”, for having brought to light compromising statements by some National Rally candidates. “There are black sheep everywhere, including in the press,” she added.

Bardella had already acknowledged on Wednesday that there may be “black sheep” among the candidates for the National Group, thus responding to the controversy unleashed after a photograph of a candidate for deputy wearing a Luftwaffe cap, the Air Force of Nazi Germany, came to light on social media.

“When there are black sheep, I don’t hesitate, and that’s why I wanted to withdraw the candidacy of people I had no knowledge of. We had to appoint 577 candidates in less than 48 hours, and in 99.9 percent of cases there was no problem,” Bardella said during an interview with France Bleu.

Le Pen’s party has faced several controversies in recent weeks after statements or compromising situations involving some of its candidates linked to xenophobic or racist attitudes came to light.