French far-right party definitively severs ties with founder

• France's far-right National Front party has definitively severed its ties to firebrand founder Jean-Marie Le Pen as it tries to revive its fortunes.
• The party also re-elected his daughter, Marine Le Pen, to a new term as president at party congress where she was its only candidate for the post.

French National Front (FN) leader Marine Le Pen has gained ground against incumbent President Emmanuel Macron in the latest polling ahead of the first round of the French presidential election on April 10.

Charles Platiau | Reuters

France's far-right National Front party has definitively severed its ties to firebrand founder Jean-Marie Le Pen as it tries to revive its fortunes.

The party also re-elected his daughter, Marine Le Pen, to a new term as president at party congress where she was its only candidate for the post. A new 100-member governing council was also named.

The party tweeted Sunday that more than 79 percent of members who participated in a vote approved new party statutes that included abolishing Jean-Marie Le Pen's position of party president for life.

The party expelled him in 2015 over anti-Semitic remarks but he kept the honorary position. Sunday's vote is a crushing blow for the 89-year-old, who founded the party in 1972 and was runner-up in the 2002 French presidential election.