Ally of France’s Le Pen insists ‘nothing wrong’ after using Nazi slogan
A prominent lawmaker in the far-right party of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Wednesday insisted he had done nothing wrong after repeating the Nazi slogan “work sets you free” in a speech at a rally.
Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a deputy in Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), had last weekend used the slogan whose original German “Arbeit macht frei” had notoriously been inscribed above Nazi concentration and extermination camps including Auschwitz.
The snippet of footage has now been widely shared on social media.
Tanguy, 40, a rising star in the party and one of its most prominent figures in the media, said that the phrase he used at the rally in Vierzon in central France had been taken out of context.
“It was a speech about how, with a good salary and the means to afford housing… individuals can, quite literally, emancipate themselves and gain freedom,” he told Europe 1 radio.
When asked if he regretted the phrasing, Tanguy replied: “I am not going to apologise for every accusation.”
However, he did apologise to those with “painful family histories” and to victims of anti-Semitism “not for what I said — because I said nothing wrong — but because they may have been personally hurt.”
“I respect the suffering and pain of the individuals and families who were tragically scarred by Nazi barbarism,” he added.
Le Pen has in recent years worked tirelessly on a strategy of “de-demonisation” to make the RN electable and distance itself from the legacy of its co-founder, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who repeatedly made remarks that were anti-Semitic or played down the Nazi occupation of France in World War II.
Polls show Marine Le Pen has a strong lead in the first round of polls next year but she could face a tight tussle in a second round in her fourth attempt to win the Elysee.
RN vice-president Louis Aliot told France 2 TV he also believed the clip had been taken out of context and said he had “no criticism to make” of Tanguy.
