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9-11 Compared To Dresden Bombing
France's far-right leader causes storm with dismissal of terror attack
Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France's National Front party, is no stranger to controversy. Best known in the United States for coming second in France's 2002 presidential election and for dismissing the Holocaust as "a detail of history", he turns his attention this week to the September 11 terror attacks and the Iraq War.
In an interview with French Catholic newspaper La Croix, Le Pen described the September 11 terror attacks as "an incident" and added that the total of "3,000 dead... is how many die in Iraq in a month and far less than the deaths in the Marseille or Dresden bombings at the end of the Second World War."
He described the bombing of Dresden and Marseilles as "terrorist acts", in that "they expressly targeted civilians to force military leaders to capitulate".
Le Pen also praised Muslim leaders for taking steps after the 9-11 terror attacks to distance themselves from Islamist terror. Traditionally, Le Pen has found little to praise about the Muslim community.
In recent years, Le Pen - partly under the influence of his daughter, Marine - has strived to position himself closer to the mainstream of French political life. He claims that the tough on crime policies of centre-right candidate Nicolas Sarkozy were due to his influence. Sarkozy, as interior minister, also sought to crack down on illegal immigration. Sources close to Sarkozy countered criticism of this tough line by arguing that at least half those who voted for Le Pen in 2002 could be "won back" to the mainstream centre-right if government could demonstrate that it paid heed to their concerns on crime and immigration.
Le Pen, for his part, argued that given the choice between Sarkozy and the National Front leader, French voters would "choose the original, not the copy."
Cynics might argue that his criticism of the US in Iraq was an attempt to win voters on the far-left, which, along with Le Pen's extreme right, is the source of the most virulent anti-Americanism in France.
