The co-founder of the French extreme-right National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was excluded from this party following a disciplinary hearing for belittling the Holocaust and insulting party leaders.

The decision to exclude the father of current party leader Marine Le Pen came in a statement hours after the end of a three-hour hearing by the party's executive bureau which listed 15 complaints, all consisting of public statements considered a liability to the new image of the party, including those in which he downplayed Nazi gas chambers as a "detail in the history" of World War II..

Marine Le Pen has been trying for months to oust her father, who held the title of honorary president for life. A statement said the executive bureau "deliberated and decided the exclusion of Mr. Jean-Marie Le Pen as member of the National Front."

Le Pen said the decision by six members of the eight-member executive bureau was carried out by an "execution squad" on orders of his daughter and her deputy, Florian Philippot, whom father Le Pen openly distrusts.

Jean-Marie Le Pen has been convicted several times in French courts of racism and anti-Semitism.

He named his daughter as his successor in 2010, and she has since chalked up electoral victories for the National Front, with polls suggesting she could become a leading contender in the French presidential race in 2017 — her ultimate goal.

Since taking over the party, Marine Le Pen has tried to create a wider appeal and shake off its reputation for anti-Semitism, positioning the party as an anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic force offering protectionist economic policies.