Gay deputy quits France’s far-right Front National

The Front National’s second-in-command Florian Philippot has dramatically quit the party after an internal feud.

Florian Philppot had been one of many gay politicians in senior positions in far-right and nationalist parties across Europe, next to Alice Weidel of Germany’s AfD, and UKIP’s Deputy Leader Peter Whittle.

The politician was one of the closest advisers to Marine Le Pen’s Presidential campaign, and had also served as one of the party’s five vice presidents.

He was key to the party’s attempts to court conservative gay voters over fears about Islam, seeking to downplay allegations of homophobia within the party despite its anti-LGBT policies.

But Philippot quit the party today, after a row with rivals that had seen him stripped of much of his power.

He told France 2: “They told me that I was the vice president of nothing… I don’t like ridicule, and I have never liked doing nothing, so of course I am leaving the Front National.”

Philippot had been credited with executing Le Pen’s plan to sanitise the Front National’s image in recent years, helping her tone down its rhetoric and widen electoral support.

(Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP/Getty Images)

He has been charged with banishing associations with anti-semitism, racism and xenophobia, which some argue are inherent to its nationalist worldview.

Mr Philippot was “outed” as gay by French Closer magazine (not related to the British version) in 2014, after it published photographs of him holidaying with another man.

Le Pen has spoke up to defend her deputy leader when the outing happened, saying: “This is a very serious infringement of an individual’s privacy.