French far-right to sue Madonna over swastika

A montage video projected during Madonna's stage show combines images of National Front leader Marine Le Pen and a swastika. / Youtube

(AP) PARIS - France's far-right National Front said Sunday that it plans to sue Madonna after the singer showed a video at a Paris concert that contained an image of the party's leader with a swastika on her forehead.

The video has been shown at other concerts on the singer's tour, and the party has expressed its outrage before, warning that it would take action if the video were shown in France.

On Saturday night, Madonna played it at the Stade de France.

National Front spokesman Alain Vizier said Sunday that the party would file a complaint in French court next week for "insults."

Party leader Marine Le Pen is briefly pictured in the video during a montage in which famous faces - or parts of faces - morph one into the next. Soon after Le Pen's face flashes up, Madonna's face follows with Hitler's mustache.

Le Pen, who inherited control of the party from her father, Jean-Marie, has tried to shed the National Front's image as racist and anti-Semitic, especially during her recent failed bid for president. But she has maintained a hard line on immigrants, saying France has too many and criticizing many Muslims, in particular, for insufficiently assimilating into French culture.

Meanwhile, anti-racism group SOS Racisme expressed its support for Madonna on Sunday, commending her for her "resolutely anti-racist and feminist discourse."

[coriolana]

Awww da poor wittle Nazi can't take being called .....a Nazi. If she stopped whoring for Hitler, it wouldn't happen.

[rwsmith29456]

Cheap publicity trick.

[saturn05]

At least Madonna says what's on her mind, unlike most people. Too bad for the French. Maybe they shouldn't have a bigot running for office.

[Farver4girls]

I don't blame Marine Le Pen and the National Front for being angry at Madonna. Wouldn't you be angry if she showed a photo of you with a swastiska on your face at a concert?

[UForgotPoland]

Why are the French mad? They provided thousands of troops to the Nazi cause and whole SS divisions were made up of French.

[fantomas4]

Who takes anything that Madonna does seriously? She's a person who has made her entire career off of inciting rage via cheap tricks.

[Molly-Pchr]

Here, here!

[hypnotoad72]

Oh boy... if she has the shock jock mentality to make such blatant accusations, she'd better have some solid context behind her claims...

I'd have to see the act in its full and original contextual entirety... without the need for anyone to have to look up external documentation. The shtick Madonna is selling, given how extreme it is, has to be upfront and complete and leave no room for misinterpretation for the allegory, and the video would be more telling.

I wonder if Madonna should run for public office. Many entertainers put up some interesting songs... if they make it big as a result, it's interesting to see which of them remain true to the causes that made them big in the first place...

And it's ironic - people being bashed because they are wary of another group, yet those people being bashed may or may not be in league with others within their own group that have bashed people of another group.

"We didn't start the fire" - despite being a tad American-centric at times, that song does have a stinging remark or two to make about violence in the world... some artists try to point out what's wrong in the world and others merely fuel the flames to worsen them. Madonna might just be in the latter category.