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Le Pen: National Front Is Not the Islamic State and Here Are Gruesome Pics to Prove It
Marine Le Pen, leader of France's National Front, went on a Twitter rant to distinguish the Islamic State from her political party.
Warning: Graphic images included below.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen just wants everyone to know that her political party, the anti-immigration National Front, isn’t the same as the Islamic State.
Her way of making that clear? Tweeting graphic images of Islamic State murders to prove her point.
On Wednesday, after French journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin asked a guest on his TV show whether there were links between the National Front and the Islamic State, Le Pen took to Twitter to defend her party.
“Jean-Jacques Bourdin’s comparison this morning of Daesh to the National Front is an unacceptable violation,” she wrote, using an alternative name for the Islamic State. “He should take back these filthy remarks!”
She then went on a Twitter rant directed at Bourdin, and posted three gruesome photos showing the murders of Islamic State hostages dressed in orange jumpsuits. Each photo is accompanied by the caption “THIS is #Daesh.”
In the first, a man is shown being run over by a tank. The next shows a victim being burned alive in a cage (he is likely the Jordanian pilot who was brutally killed that way in February 2015). The third photo shows a man lying on his stomach with his hands handcuffed. His bloody, decapitated head is placed neatly on his back.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls joined the Twitter war to call the photos “monstrous” and accuse Le Pen of lacking respect for the victims. He even used the hashtag “#FNhorsjeu,” which translates to “National Front is offsides.”
Le Pen wasn’t deterred: She then tweeted at Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, asking if he planned to come after her for “defaming the Islamic State.”
Cazeneuve reportedly contacted police after the photos were posted, warning they are propaganda. The photos are “Daesh propaganda…and a disgrace, an abomination and an absolute insult to all victims,” he said.
It’s no surprise the ultra-conservative Le Pen is especially on edge this week. On Sunday, she lost to a center-right candidate in regional elections in the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie. And her niece, rising right-wing star Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, also came up short in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur.
In the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, which were linked to the Islamic State, both thought they had a better shot at a win.
Photo Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images
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