By Stephanie Hare
CNN
April 12, 2017
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front (FN) party, told a television audience over the weekend that France was not responsible for the so-called Vél d’Hiv roundup of July 1942, when French police arrested more than 13,000 Jews, detained them for five days in the Vélodrome d’Hiver cycling stadium in Paris and then deported them.
In making such a comment, Le Pen undermined any claims that the National Front had purged its party of its anti-Semitic elements. While this is unlikely to deter her core supporters, it has the potential to repel those who are undecided.