Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right Front National (FN), said he would not seek its ticket to stand in regional polls later this year, taking some of the sting out of a damaging public row with his daughter Marine, the party leader.

The leader of France’s far-right National Front launched an all-out offensive yesterdayagainst her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, opposing his candidacy in upcoming elections and entering into an open war with the man who helped found the party more than four decades ago.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been formally placed under investigation over claims that he illegally took donations from France’s richest woman on the way to his 2007 election victory.

SHAMED former French leader Jacques Chirac has been found guilty of corruption and given a suspended jail sentence, becoming France’s first ex-president to be convicted for his crimes.