France's far-right National Front plans to bring its campaign for next year's French elections to Israel, the party's vice-president has told the JC.
In the first Israel visit by a NF official, Louis Aliot, who is partner of leader Marine Le Pen as well as second-in-command in the party, spent two days this week in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
No elected politicians agreed to meet him, though he said that apparatchiks in some parties did on the condition that their identities were not revealed. The main focus of the trip, however, was to establish a connection between the party and French expatriates.
The National Front is trying hard to shake off its reputation for antisemitism and xenophobia. Jean-Marie Le Pen, party founder and father of the current leader, is famous for his comment that Nazi gas chambers were a "detail" in Second World War history.
