Regulations of the European Parliament have changed because of Le Pen.

In order to prevent the presidency of the French nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first session of the European Parliament deputies have changed the rules of his work. Under the old arrangement, the first session of the newly elected parliament to open the oldest elected deputies, which is a 80-year-old Le Pen, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Under the new rules will open the first session of the European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pettering. If the president will not be re-elected, his seat will be one of the vice-presidents. Start a new convocation of the European Parliament scheduled for 14 July 2009.
Le Pen is known for his extreme nationalist views. He has repeatedly accused of denying Nazi crimes. Permanent leader of them in 1972, the National Front, Le Pen more than 25 times was convicted on various charges, including the justification of war crimes for inciting racial hatred, for inciting anti-Semitism, for the attempted revision of crimes against humanity and for the justification of the Gestapo .
The leader of the Socialist faction in the European Parliament Martin Schulz said that a politician who sees the gas chambers just as one of the episodes of the war can not be honored to open the session of European Parliament. Liberal leader Graham Watson, by contrast, had sharply criticized the decision of colleagues. He said that Europe's politicians should have no limit of Le Pen in the walls of Parliament, and to achieve a situation where he would not have been elected.