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May 6, 2009, 12:09 GMT

European Parliament prevents extremist Le Pen from chairing meeting

Strasbourg, France - The European Parliament on Wednesday changed its internal rules so as to prevent French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen from chairing the assembly's opening session after next month's elections. The rule change was backed by the two main groupings in the parliament, the European People's Party (EPP) and the Socialist Group. The 80-year-old Le Pen, who was once condemned by a German court for 'minimizing the Holocaust', would have enjoyed the honour of chairing the parliament's opening session on July 14 as its oldest elected member. The new rules state that the parliament's inaugural session will instead be chaired either by the outgoing president, Hans-Gert Poettering, if he is re-elected, or by one of the 14 vice-presidents in order of seniority. 'A politician who continues to assert that the Nazi gas chambers are a detail of history cannot have the honour of presiding over this assembly, which symbolises the reconciliation of the peoples of Europe,' said Socialist Group leader Martin Schulz, a German. The move was criticized by Graham Watson, head of the Liberal Group, who argued that lawmakers should instead have devoted more time to making sure Le Pen did not get re-elected, European Voice reported.

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