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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/le-pen-bids-adieu-to-national-front.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen during his party's national congress in Tours, France (AP)" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/min-le-pen-bids-adieu-to-national-front.jpg" alt="French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen during his party's national congress in Tours, France (AP)"/></a></p>
<p>France&#8217;s right-wing firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen has said goodbye to the National Front party he founded nearly 40 years ago with an impassioned defence of his anti-immigration, anti-Islam platform.</p>
<p>In his final speech as party president, the 82-year-old nationalist was unapologetic, insisting that &#8220;unceasing immigration&#8221; poses a threat to the French way of life. </p>
<p>Mr Le Pen&#8217;s speech centred on what he sees as the transformation of &#8220;Christian and secular France into an unbelieving France on the path of Islamisation&#8221;.</p>
<p>He appealed to his audience of some 1,800 supporters, saying it was up to them to ensure the National Front&#8217;s future success &#8211; under a new leader. &#8220;I entrust you with the destiny of our movement, its lasting, its unity, its pugnacity,&#8221; Mr Le Pen told the audience of the party congress in the central city of Tours. &#8220;It&#8217;s still time to join us, to sign up for the decisive battle which will open a new era for France.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Le Pen&#8217;s successor at the head of the party is yet to be be announced, but French media reports have said his daughter, Marine, won a vote that pitted her against the party&#8217;s long-time number two, Bruno Gollnisch. A report in Le Figaro daily said she had garnered 67% of the party members&#8217; vote.</p>
<p>A 42-year-old mother of three, Marine Le Pen is widely seen as the kinder, gentler face of a party known for its extreme stances. French television ran footage of a visibly moved Marine Le Pen, tears streaming down her cheeks as she applauded her father.</p>
<p>Mr Le Pen has been convicted of inciting racial hatred for saying France might be overrun by Muslims and minimising the Holocaust for dismissing the Nazi death camps as a &#8220;detail of history&#8221;.</p>
<p>In 2002, he shocked France and the world by triumphing over a candidate from the opposition Socialist party and making it into the run-off against the conservative incumbent, then-president Jacques Chirac. Voters from across the political spectrum rallied around Mr Chirac to keep Jean-Marie Le Pen out of power, and he was trounced.</p>
<p>In the 2007 presidential election, Mr Le Pen took another drubbing, in part because Mr Chirac&#8217;s successor, conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, swiped much of his support with a tough-on-crime platform.</p>
<p>Now, with Sarkozy&#8217;s poll numbers lagging, the tables may be turning. A recent poll found 22% of respondents support the ideas of the National Front, up from 18% a year ago &#8211; though still lower than the 28% recorded in 2002.</p>
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