Le Pen “freezes” UCD debate visit

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front party in France, is to defer his visit to Ireland, according to a Sunday newspaper.

A spokesman for the far-right leader cited Irish media coverage of his invite to speak at a University Collage Dublin Law Society event, saying "we would like to calm things down".

“We do not want to be used as a weapon from the Yes side. Because of the major media interest - some of the articles said we were racist - we would like to calm things down for the moment,” Le Penn’s press director, Ludovic de Danne, was quoted in the Sunday Business Post.

UCD’s Law Society – run by UCD students – had invited Le Pen to speak at event to debate the upcoming referendum on the EU Reform Treaty.

Le Pen, who is against the treaty, has previously said the Nazi occupation of France was “not particularly inhumane”, although it saw more than 70,000 French Jews deported to death camps.

The invite attracted criticism from the UCD management, the Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche, and parts of the No Vote campaign, who do not wish to be associated with him.

The treaty is a reworked and watered down version of the proposed EU constitution. France and the Netherlands rejected the constitution, but Ireland is set to be the only country to put the treaty to a referendum.

The treaty includes the removal of the national veto in areas, a president of the European council, a reduction of European commission so there will be fewer commissioners then EU members, and an increase in centralised powers for the EU.

Photo: Fabien Dany, some rights reserved.