Resorting to irony, Jean-Marie le Pen of the far-right Front National declared on national radio: "My Swiss bank account was always known to the French tax revenue and I wear pants made in France".

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In 2005, friends persuaded him to wear his Napoleon outfit to an event in Brittany, in Northern France.

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Other countries have been more assiduous (some would say too assiduous) in doing so: France forbade schoolgirls to wear headscarves.

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In France, any young girl, any girl who wishes to wear a veil or a headscarf may do so, it's her free choice to do so.

WHITEHOUSE: THE WHITE HOUSE

They are ideologically aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and recently launched along with their powerful allies in France a pan-European campaign to assert the right of women to wear the veil.

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