Florian Phillipot, the vice president of the Front National, has resigned from the party. A couple of days after being relieved of his responsibilities for policy, he claims being "vice-president of nothing" leaves him open to ridicule, for which he has no taste.
After the debacle of the presidential election and humiliation of Marine le Pen, many supporters claimed the policy of "de-diabolisation" was going too far and his pro-EU stance was wrong. He formed his own think-tank to consider ideas and policies nearer to traditional Gaullism for the far right party in its aim to rid itself of its poisonous image.
The party, however, still has its core of hard nationalist and fascist leaning supporters, and Phillipot was recently pilloried on Twitter for choosing to eat couscous instead of choucroute when he was in Alsace. This kind of petty nationalism shows how far the party has to go to rid itself of its septic base.
And heaven forbid that there be any homophobic element of opposition to the party's gay ex vice-president.
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