France election: New far right leader quits in Holocaust row

France's far-right National Front (FN) has replaced its leader for the second time in three days after a row erupted about Holocaust denial. Jean-François Jalkh had been named as the interim president on Tuesday after Marine Le Pen stepped aside to fight for the French presidency. Mr Jalkh denies claims that in past remarks he questioned the reality of Nazi gas chambers. He is being replaced by Steeve Briois, one of the party's MEPs. Like Mr Jalkh, Mr Briois is also one of the party's five vice-presidents. He is mayor of the National Front-run town of Henin-Beaumont in northern France. "Mr Briois will take over the interim leadership and there'll be no more talk about it," fellow FN vice-president Louis Aliot - who is also Ms Le Pen's partner - told BFMTV news channel. It is an unwelcome development for Ms Le Pen, who has worked hard to distance her party from its anti-Semitic roots - expelling her father from the party he founded over his comments that the gas chambers were a "detail of history".

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