Nanterre -
The French far-right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended on Monday night from the party he founded for a series of extremist remarks last month, defying the softer line adopted by his daughter, Marine.
The executive committee of the National Front also called a special party conference to abolish Mr Le Pen's position as lifetime president of honour.
Defiant to the end, Mr Le Pen, 86, refused to attend the meeting called to punish him for, amongst other things defending the Vichy regime which collaborated with the Nazis during the war.
Mr Le Pen said it was below his “dignity” to be disciplined by the party he had founded.
He said that in future he would speak “only for myself” - in effect accepting that the split with his daughter was now permanent.
Earlier, the party's governing body condemned the remarks he made minimising the Holocaust and warning that the “white world” was threatened.
The party's decision was opposed by supporters including his granddaughter, Marion Maréchal Le Pen, and the party's former deputy, Bruno Gollnisch.
The Independent