The European Parliament has voted to lift the immunity of French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen over charges of inciting racial hatred.<br /><br /> French prosecutors want to put him on trial for comments he made about several artists.<br /><br /> The legal affairs committee of the European Parliament stressed that parliamentary immunity “does not allow for slandering, libelling, inciting hatred or pronouncing statements attacking a person’s honour.”<br /><br /> The former leader of the far-right Front National party, posted a video online in 2014 in which he made anti-Semitic remarks about<br />about his prominent critics, in particular referencing French Jewish singer Patrick Bruel. It led to his exclusion from the party.<br /><br /> It is the fourth time the 88 year-old has had his immunity lifted. In 1998, Germany made the request after Le Pen famously called Nazi gas chambers ‘a detail of history’.<br /><br /> Front National leader Marine Le Pen condemned her father’s comments about Patrick Bruel at the time as ‘a political error’. However, she faces a challenge to her immunity. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz said he had received a request to end her immunity on Monday. The dossier has been handed to the legal affairs committee.<br />
