PARIS, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A reshuffle in France's far-right National Front party appears to hand a victory to Marine Le Pen, daughter of the party's leader.
On Tuesday, the bureau's executive committee replaced its No. 3 in command with an ally of 37-year-old Le Pen, the youngest of three daughters of Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Marine Le Pen was once considered a likely candidate to succeed her father.
As head of "Generations Le Pen," representing younger party members, she is viewed as a softer alternative to her father who is best known for his controversial remarks about Nazis, ethnic immigrants and the legacy of the Holocaust.
But the two Le Pens reportedly clashed earlier this year over Jean Marie Le Pen's opinion that the Nazi occupation of France during World War II "was not particularly inhumane."
Le Pen, 77, placed second in the first round of presidential elections in 2002. He was soundly defeated in the second round by center-right President Jacques Chirac in a vote most considered to be a referendum against extremism.
Le Pen says he will run again in the 2007 presidential race. By that time he will be nearly 79 years old.
