Furore over Holocaust comments dogs Marine Le Pen

A picture in Cessales near Toulouse shows campaign poster of Marine Le Pen with Nazi graffiti

Paris: Marine Le Pen's bid to become French president risked a setback on Friday when the man named interim head of her National Front party stood down to prepare legal action over allegations that he may share the views of Holocaust deniers.

Days from the May 7 ballot when the far-right leader faces off against centrist ex-banker Emmanuel Macron, the abrupt exit of Jean-Francois Jalkh awoke ghosts from the Front's past and revived a furore sparked by Le Pen's father when he called the Nazi gas chambers a "detail" of history. The renewed controversy threatens moves by Le Pen, who expelled her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, from the party two years ago, to cleanse the FN's image of xenophobic and anti-semitic associations.