French court reinstates Jean-Marie Le Pen in far-right party

A French court has reinstated Jean-Marie Le Pen on Thursday as a member of the far-right National Front party he founded decades ago, delivering a blow to his daughter and party President Marine Le Pen, who had suspended him after a series of anti-Semitic statements.

The family drama reflects the political evolution of the party, as Marine eyes the French presidency and cultivates a less extreme image than her father.

She had tried to sideline her father, honorary party president for life, and held a special meeting on May 4 in which senior party figures suspended his membership.

Jean-Marie protested, and a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre ruled in his favor Thursday. The judge said the party breached its own statutes by suspending Jean-Marie without setting a date for a final decision on whether to expel him permanently.

Jean-Marie "Le Pen can from tomorrow morning ... start using his office again and all the means that were at his disposal and sit in all the bodies in which he was taking part as honorary president," Jean-Marie’s lawyer, Frederic Joachim, told local media.

The National Front’s crisis erupted in April when father Le Pen reiterated past comments that the Nazi gas chambers were “a mere detail of history” and defended Philippe Petain, the war-time leader who cooperated with Nazi Germany.

Marine said Thursday's ruling would "have no influence" on voting currently under way by party members about changes to National Front statutes. Among the changes would be removing her father's honorary president status, a title created for him when Marine took over the party in 2011. The voting is taking place by mail and is scheduled to end by July 10.

In a statement, the party said it was appealing Thursday's ruling, but said the decision would only produce one result: Now that he is reinstated in the party, Jean-Marie can take part in the party vote about his future.

Asked if he still had support within the party, National Front deputy leader Florian Philippot laughed and said there was unanimity behind Marine.

"No one thinks that he speaks in the name of the [National Front] any more anyway," he told BFM TV, a French television station.

The suspension was a big defeat for a man who has been a runner-up for the French presidency and whose outspoken anti-immigrant views helped push security and migration higher on the national agenda.

Jean-Marie has been convicted for racism and anti-Semitism multiple times under French laws prohibiting hate speech. His daughter has tried to distance her party from that, instead railing against what she calls "Islamization" and tapping fears of extremist violence.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press