Thomas Samson, AFP | National Front party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen at a rally in Paris on May 1, 2015

National Front party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen on Tuesday said he had been betrayed by his own daughter, Marine Le Pen, a day after France’s far right party suspended him.

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Reacting angrily to the decision by the party he established in 1972 to exclude him, Jean-Marie Le Pen told reporters he would fight the suspension and would continue to speak out publicly. He also lashed out at his daughter, saying she was unworthy of his name and the French presidency.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, infamous for his controversial views and statements, led the National Front (FN) for almost four decades, handing over its reins to daughter Marine in 2011.

“Let her get married as soon as possible. I do not want her carrying my name anymore,” he told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday morning.

Asked if he wished Marine to win France’s presidential election in two years, Jean-Marie said: “Not for now”.

“If such low moral principles were to preside over the French state it would be scandalous,” he added, calling his suspension “treachery”. “The enemy fights you face to face, here it is stabbing me in the back”, he added.

Recent opinion polls show Marine is the frontrunner in France’s 2017 presidential ballot. She would claim 29 percent of votes, ahead of former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist incumbent François Hollande, according to a study published in Le Parisien on Tuesday.

The same poll revealed the anti-immigration, anti-EU leader would lose in the subsequent second-round ballot.

Not quitting politics

The FN suspended Jean-Marie at a disciplinary hearing on Monday afternoon, and said in a statement that it would call a future meeting to strip him of his title of honorary chairman.

The coup came amid a very public Le Pen family feud over incendiary comments made by Jean-Marie, including a repeat of past statements that Nazi gas chambers were a mere “detail” of World War II.

Since succeeding her father as party chief, Marine has tried to round the party’s rough edges, particularly of its anti-Semitic image.

In another controversial comment, Jean-Marie defended Philippe Petain, the leader of the French war-time government that cooperated with Nazi Germany.

Last month Jean-Marie agreed not to stand for the party in regional elections in southern France, but has insisted he will not quit politics altogether and will continue as a member of the European Parliament.

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