Marine Le Pen removes tweet showing Islamic State execution of James Foley

Ever since she took over leadership of France’s far-right National Front (FN) in 2011, Marine Le Pen’s focus has been on making the party more acceptable to the average French voter, with an eye on the presidential election of 2017.

The prosecutor’s office in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre on Wednesday said it had launched an investigation into “the dissemination of violent images” in connection with her tweets.

The incident comes three days after Le Pen’s National Front suffered a stinging defeat in critical regional elections on Sunday, failing to take any regions, a personal humiliation for Le Pen who ran in the north. However, she came out victorious in a legal battle Tuesday when a Lyon court acquitted her of inciting hatred for denouncing prayers in the streets by Muslims.

The images were tweeted with the caption “This is Daesh” – an Arabic acronym for ISIS – and showed Mr Foley’s bloodied body with his decapitated head on his torso, a man on fire in a cage, and a victim being driven over by a tank.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls described the tweeting of the images as “monstrous” and accused Le Pen of “inflaming public debate”.

After the comments, which provoked outrage in France, Le Pen was investigated but the probe was later closed without further action.

A statement said the family were “deeply disturbed by the unsolicited use of Jim for Le Pen’s political gain” and wanted the photos taken down “immediately”.

Le Pen reacted to the ruling with a post on her official Twitter account.

Seeking to soften the party’s image, she usually avoids the type of provocative acts that her maverick father, FN founder Jean-Marie relishes.

Marine Le Pen has proven she is aligned with the ISIL Islamo-fascists, by promoting the violence and murder they fetishize, and insulting the victims of terrorism.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the photos were “Daesh propaganda and are a disgrace, an abomination and an absolute insult to all victims of…”

“If you want to talk about the occupation, let’s talk about that, by the way, because here we are talking about the occupation of our space”, she said, according to the Times. Le Pen later withdrew Foley’s pic.

Although the anti-immigration party did not win control of any regions, its strong showing in the first round of voting panicked mainstream parties, forcing them to band together to strip votes from the FN in the second round.