French Ambassador Says He Won’t Serve if Le Pen is President

PARIS (AP) — France’s ambassador to Japan has said publicly that he would refuse to serve as a diplomat if Marine Le Pen were elected president.

The National Front shot back on Thursday saying that Ambassador Thierry Dana should anticipate Le Pen’s coming victory in the April 23 and May 7 presidential votes, and “immediately leave public service.”

The ambassador, in a commentary in Le Monde newspaper, sharply criticized Le Pen and her nationalist policies. He cited a Feb. 26 speech by Le Pen in Nantes in which she suggested that some civil servants were allegedly working against her, and said they could be held liable once the Socialist government is “swept away.”