by Our Foreign Desk

FRENCH National Front (FN) founder Jean-Marie le Pen vowed yesterday to create a new far-right organisation following his suspension from the FN last month.

The ageing extremist did not clarify what kind of formation he was planning, but said it would not be a rival political party.

“I won’t create another party,” he said. “I’ll create a formation that won’t compete with” the National Front.

The former leader told French radio yesterday that FN vice-president Florian Philippot was gradually undermining the power of his daughter, FN leader Marine le Pen.

He warned party members: “It’s Philippot or Le Pen,” adding that his new group would be a “parachute against disaster.”

Mr Philippot has compared Mr Le Pen to an old singer who refuses to leave the stage.

Mr Le Pen was suspended from the NF after he made repeated anti-semitic comments and praised second world war nazi collaborator marshal Philippe Petain.

The party will decide in the next three months whether he will also lose his title of honorary president.

This is only the latest in a string of family feuds within the anti-immigration FN as Ms Le Pen seeks to whitewash her image ahead of 2017 presidential elections.

The FN has been a significant force in French politics since 1984.

Following the suspension, Mr Le Pen publicly disowned his daughter and urged her to marry so that she would no longer bear his family name.