Brussels, Belgium, May 15, 2024 (AFP)
France's far-right standard-bearer Marine Le Pen has sued a Belgian party to stop it using her face on election pamphlets to drum up votes, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Le Pen never gave permission for her image to be used by Belgium's extreme-right Chez Nous (Our Home) party, Belgian lawyer Ghislain Dubois told AFP.
Two letters ordering Chez Nous to stop and a court complaint asking for daily fines to be imposed were needed before the party complied, he said.
The head of Chez Nous, Jerome Munier, confirmed to AFP the party had withdrawn the Le Pen pamphlets and told members to avoid using images subject to copyright.
He expressed regret that some members had distributed pamphlets bearing Le Pen's face.
Chez Nous, founded in 2021, is fielding candidates in Belgium's June 9 national elections. The party is active in the country's southern, French-speaking region.
Le Pen has handed over the reins of the National Rally party, previously known as the National Front, to a 28-year-old protege, Jordan Bardella, but remains a presidential hopeful for the party.
The daughter of National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, she has strived to remake both her image and that of her party to make them more acceptable to mainstream French voters.
Voter surveys put it ahead of President Emmanuel Macron's party in EU elections also to be held on June 9 in France.

Sumber : AFP