Far-right writer kills self in Paris's Notre Dame 
 
 PARIS — A far-right writer and activist shot himself dead in front of the altar of Paris's famed Notre Dame Cathedral, leaving statements denouncing gay marriage and immigration. 
 
 Police confirmed the man's identity as Dominique Venner, 78, an essayist and activist linked with France's far-right and nationalist group. 
 
 They said he had shot himself with a pistol shortly after 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) Tuesday and the cathedral, which at the time contained about 1,500 people, was then evacuated without incident. 
 
 Venner left a message, which was read out by a friend after his death on the conservative station Radio Courtoisie, and a final essay on his website. 
 
 They denounced both the recently passed law legalising gay marriage and immigration from Africa. 
 
 "I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself to break with the lethargy that is overwhelming us," he said in the message read out on the radio. 
 
 "I am killing myself to awaken slumbering consciences." 
 
 Venner's suicide was hailed by Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National (FN), as a political gesture. 
 
 "All respect to Dominique Venner whose final, eminently political act was to try to wake up the people of France," Le Pen said on Twitter, though she added later that "it is in life and hope that France will renew and save itself". 
 
 Cathedral rector Monsignor Patrick Jacquin told AFP that Venner had laid a letter on the altar before killing himself. A police source said the letter contained similar writings to those on Venner's website. 
 
 "We did not know him, he was not a regular at the cathedral," Jacquin said, adding that he believed it was the first time anyone had committed suicide inside the cathedral. 
 
 Jacquin said masses had been cancelled and that church officials would hold a vigil later on Tuesday. 
 
 "We will pray for this man, as for so many others at their end," he said. "This is terrible, we are thinking of him and his family." 
 
 In a final essay on his website, Venner railed against France's adoption of a "vile law" legalising gay marriage and adoption. It finally became law on Saturday after months of bitter political protests from the right. 
 
 Venner also denounced immigration from north Africa which, he said, was the real "peril", calling on activists to take measures to protect "French and European identities". 
 
 In what appeared to be a reference to his suicide, Venner wrote: "There will certainly need to be new, spectacular, symbolic gestures to shake off the sleepiness... and re-awaken the memories of our origins." 
 
 "We are reaching a time when words must be backed up with acts," he added. 
 
 Venner had a long career publishing right-wing essays, military histories and books on weaponry and hunting. 
 
 He was a soldier during France's war in Algeria and was a member of the OAS (Secret Armed Organisation), a short-lived paramilitary group that opposed Algeria's independence from France. 
 
 Venner's publisher, Pierre-Guillaume de Roux, said his next book due in June was titled "A Western Samurai". 
 
 He said the writer's death had "an extremely strong symbolic power that approximates (Yukio) Mishima," the radical right-wing Japanese author who committed ritual suicide in 1970. 
 
 Mishima had likely been an inspiration for Venner's suicide, Gollnisch, a Japan expert, added. 
 
 Mishima, considered one of modern Japan's most important authors, killed himself in a dramatic, samurai-style disembowelment at a Self Defense Force camp in Tokyo at age 45 in a political protest. 
 
 Minutes before his suicide he addressed the troops, condemning the post-war pacifist constitution and lamenting the decadence of modern Japan. He called on soldiers to rise up to build a nation with the emperor at its core. 
 
 The Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral on an islet on the River Seine is one of the most visited sites in Paris, attracting 13.6 million visitors in 2011, and is this year celebrating its 850th anniversary. 
 
 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has hailed Tuesday’s suicide of a far right activist opposed to gay marriage as an "eminently political act". Dominique Venner shot himself at Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, filled with 1,500 visitors at the time. 
 
 The suicide of a writer and right wing activist at the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in central Paris on Tuesday has been hailed as a political act by leaders of France’s far-right National Front party. 
 
 Dominique Venner, an author of many history essays that often decried immigration in France and the decline of European civilizations, shot himself in front of the altar of the famous church in the early afternoon. 
 
 Police sources said Venner pulled out a pistol and put it in his mouth, before pulling the trigger. 
 
 A photo of Dominique Venner posted on his website 
 
 The day before, Venner had left a final essay on his website that suggested his dramatic suicide was intended as a protest against both the recent passing of a bill legalizing gay marriage in France and immigration from Africa. 
 
 He also left a message that was read out after his suicide on the conservative station Radio Courtoisie. 
 
 "I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself to break with the lethargy that is overwhelming us," he said in the radio message. 
 
 "I am killing myself to awaken slumbering consciences." 
 
 Venner’s suicide was later hailed as a political gesture by National Front leader Marine Le Pen. 
 
 "All respect to Dominique Venner whose final, eminently political act was to try to wake up the people of France," Le Pen said on Twitter, though she added later that "it is in life and hope that France will renew and save itself". 
 
 Bruno Gollnisch, a senior National Front figure and member of the European Parliament also paid tribute to Venner, referring to him as an “extremely brilliant intellectual”. 
 
 "I think his dramatic gesture is a protest against the decadence of our society," Gollnisch told BFM TV. 
 
 In a final essay on his website, Venner railed against France's adoption of a "vile law" legalising gay marriage and adoption. 
 
 French interior minister Manuel Valls comments on suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral 
 
 The gay marriage bill has sparked numerous protests in France, with many on the right bitterly opposed to the act. The bill was finally signed into law by President François Hollande on Sunday. 
 
 Venner also denounced immigration from North Africa which, he said, was the real "peril", calling on activists to take measures to protect "French and European identities". 
 
 In what appeared to be a reference to his suicide, Venner wrote: "There will certainly need to be new, spectacular, symbolic gestures to shake off the sleepiness... and re-awaken the memories of our origins." 
 
 "We are reaching a time when words must be backed up with acts," he added. 
 
 Venner fought for France in the 1954-62 Algerian War of Independence and was a member of the OAS (Secret Armed Organisation), a short-lived paramilitary group that opposed Algeria's independence from France. 
 
 He went on to have a long career publishing right-wing essays, military histories and books on weaponry and hunting. 
 
 Notre Dame, which this year is celebrating its 850th anniversary, is one of France’s top tourist attractions, with 13.6 million visitors passing through its doors in 2011. 
 
 The cathedral contained around 1,500 visitors at the time of the suicide, all of whom were then evacuated without incident, said France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who visited Notre Dame following the incident. 
 
 “I can only imagine the shock for these people, both faithful and tourists,” he said. 
 
 “Notre Dame … is one of the biggest symbols of the capital and the country and we can only imagine the impact that this [act] will have.” 
 
 It was the second dramatic suicide in less than a week in Paris, after a 50-year-old man with a history of family problems shot himself dead Thursday in a primary school near the Eiffel Tower, in front of about a dozen stunned children. 
 
 (FRANCE 24 with wires) ||||| PARIS/CHATELLERAULT, France (Reuters) - Marine Le Pen’s bid to defy the odds and win the French presidency risked a setback on Friday when her designated stand-in as National Front party leader stood down to defend himself against charges he shares the views of Holocaust deniers. 
 
 After an intense day of campaigning ahead of a May 7 run-off vote in which both the far-right’s Le Pen and her centrist opponent Emmanuel Macron were carried back to the events of World War Two, surveys continued to show the independent Macron well ahead. 
 
 But in a couple of potential blows to the centrist favorite, defeated far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon stopped short of endorsing him, despite telling his faithful not to vote for Le Pen. 
 
 Election graphic: http: //tmsnrt.rs/2p6zUPE 
 
 First round election graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2lPduBG 
 
 And another loser from the first round, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, endorsed Le Pen, as expected. 
 
 The abrupt departure of Jean-Francois Jalkh from the National Front (FN) party leadership before he had even taken on the job raised ghosts of the FN’s past and revived a furor sparked by Le Pen’s father when he called the Nazi gas chambers a “detail” of history. 
 
 The renewed controversy threatens moves by Le Pen, who expelled her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, from the party two years ago, to cleanse the FN’s image of xenophobic and anti-semitic associations and make it more palatable to a broader electorate. 
 
 “There comes a time when the women and men of France must open their eyes to where the National Front comes from,” Macron’s campaign director Richard Ferrand said. 
 
 The presidential contest has blown apart traditional party loyalties, presenting voters with a stark choice between a resurgent far right, once a pariah in French politics, and a man whose political movement is less than a year old and who has never held elected office. 
 
 It sets Macron’s enthusiasm for the European Union and call for pro-business reforms to boost growth against Le Pen’s desire for France to close its borders to immigrants, unwind EU institutions and restrict imports to protect jobs. 
 
 Most opinion polls show him winning next Sunday, with 60 percent or more of the vote, a slightly smaller margin than a week ago. 
 
 Jalkh, a long-time ally of Le Pen senior who founded the National Front, was one of 35 FN members elected to parliament in the mid-1980s. He had been due to take over as interim party chief, a post Marine Le Pen has vacated to focus on the presidential race. 
 
 FN officials said Jalkh denies the allegations linking him to Holocaust deniers, and Le Pen herself later told BFM TV “there is no one in the leadership of the National Front who defends this sort of thesis”. 
 
 At issue are comments attributed to Jalkh in a conversation with a researcher in 2005 about the work of a professor convicted more than once for questioning the scale of Jewish extermination in Nazi gas chambers during World War Two. Also unearthed was a 1991 report that said Jalkh attended a rally held by supporters of Marshal Philippe Petain, French wartime leader and Nazi collaborator, in July of that year. 
 
 Le Pen’s father has been convicted of inciting racial hatred for his remarks on the Holocaust, and referred to them himself as recently as 2015. 
 
 Marine Le Pen (C), French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, arrives at her campaign headquarters in Paris, France, April 28, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau 
 
 GAY MARRIAGE JIBE 
 
 A thorn in her side, the 88 year-old has refused to be silent as his daughter bids for power. 
 
 He courted controversy again on Friday, saying a remembrance ceremony for a policeman killed last week by an attacker in Paris “exalted” the concept of gay marriage by giving the policeman’s male partner the stage to speak in his memory. 
 
 Marine Le Pen attended the state ceremony with other political figures including Macron, and distanced herself from her father’s comment on Friday. 
 
 “I felt it was a very dignified ceremony and I was very moved by the speech of his partner,” she said. 
 
 As Le Pen and her party grappled with the latest turn of events, Macron had troubles too. 
 
 Melenchon, who came fourth in the election with about one on five votes of which about 40 percent are expected to back Macron, stopped short of endorsing him in a video released on YouTube. 
 
 Fringe right-wing candidate Dupont-Aignan, meanwhile, gave his backing to Le Pen as expected. He gathered 4.7 percent of the first round vote. 
 
 Macron on Friday campaigned at a village preserved as a monument to inhabitants killed by German SS soldiers in 1944. 
 
 Slideshow (10 Images) 
 
 “Deciding not to remember is to take the risk of repeating history,” the 39-year-old said in Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges in central France, a thinly veiled attack on Le Pen for the anti-immigrant policies he says are fuelling divisions in French society. 
 
 Macron later gave a speech in Chatellerault, western France, taking his election battle to rural areas where disgruntled farmers have increasingly shied away from politicians or turned to the far-right following years of crisis.
– The suicide of a far-right writer/activist at Paris' Notre Dame yesterday is being hailed as a "political act" by other far-right leaders. Dominique Venner, who shot himself in front of an estimated 1,500 people inside the vaunted cathedral, had posted a final essay on his website decrying both the country's recent legalization of gay marriage and immigration from Africa, reports the AFP. The 78-year-old left a letter containing similar statements at the altar before killing himself, says a police source. Venner also left a message that a friend read on a conservative radio station. A sample: "I believe it is necessary to sacrifice myself to break with the lethargy that is overwhelming us. ... I am killing myself to awaken slumbering consciences." On Twitter, National Front party leader Marine Le Pen praised Venner. "All respect to Dominique Venner whose final, eminently political act was to try to wake up the people of France," she wrote. Another senior National Front figure and member of the European Parliament also hailed the "dramatic gesture," and called Venner an "extremely brilliant intellectual," France 24 reports. He noted the death was likely inspired by that of right-wing Japanese author Yukio Mishima, who committed ritual seppuku in 1970 as an act of political protest.