WASHINGTON — A French presidential candidate for the far-right National Front party skipped a planned Wednesday visit to Washington's U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she was to pay respects to over 6 million Jews and millions of others killed by Nazi Germany.
Marine Le Pen, who is also a member of the European Union parliament, had announced she would visit the museum Wednesday morning during a U.S. tour to boost her international profile that also included stops on Capitol Hill and the United Nations in New York. Later, she told The Associated Press she simply ran out of time for the museum visit, though she has not visited the Shoah Memorial, the Holocaust museum in Paris, either.
"The one in Washington is older and more impressive," Le Pen said.
A visit to the Holocaust Museum would have been seen as a dramatic gesture and a departure from her father, former party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. He had run-ins with the law during his long political career for minimizing the Holocaust. France has strict laws aimed at curbing anti-Semitic and racist language. He was fined and convicted for inciting racial hatred for saying France might be overrun by Muslims and for calling World War II gas chambers "a detail" of history.
Listing the Holocaust museum on Le Pen's Washington itinerary was not meant to distance her from her father, she said.
"The idea of visiting museum was proposed to me and it made sense," she said. "It was not possible for reasons of time, but many American Jews know that I am not an enemy."
In a statement on Le Pen's visit, her office said she "stands with the nation of Israel and strongly repudiates Neo-Nazism, radical jihadists and other efforts to deny Israel's right to exist and thrive."
Her tour was announced as an official U.S. visit to find "a common path to global financial stability and social progress."
For France, she is urging elimination of the euro system and resistance to central bank pressure. She also has called for a balanced budget amendment. During her visit, she planned to stress other issues challenging both the United States and France, such as border security. A statement announcing her visit said France has become a magnet for illegal immigrants from North Africa.
On Capitol Hill, she met with Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, who is running for president, to discuss ways to end the global economic crisis and with Illinois Republican Rep. Joe Walsh, a tea party supporter. A planned meeting with Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich was cancelled. Le Pen said she did not discuss immigration or security issues with the lawmakers.
But in conversations with French-speaking ambassadors, many from Africa, she said she had pointed out that immigration of their elite citizens deprives their countries of talented people.
Over the summer, Le Pen spoke out against Muslims kneeling in the streets for Friday prayers in Paris in areas where there is not enough space inside mosques. She called the street prayers a form of "occupation," a word loaded with historical meaning, and said the prayers are a "political act by fundamentalists."
Le Pen has said she wants to broaden appeal for her party, known for its anti-immigration, anti-Islam views. As she took over the National Front party in January, she was seen as a kinder, gentler face of a party known for extreme stances. On Wednesday, she said she is still working to change the image of the National Front "because the image (of our party) is not fair," she said.
"And that fact that we are near the president in the polls shows that our educational efforts are succeeding," she said.
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Associated Press Writer Harry Dunphy contributed to this report.
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Brett Zongker can be reached at http://twitter.com/DCArtBeat
—Copyright 2011 Associated Press
Marine Le Pen en 2010.

La candidate du parti frontiste Marine Le Pen fait sa stature internationale aux États-Unis, où elle est en déplacement. Après Washington, New-York. Elle a rencontré l'ambassadeur d'Israël aux Nations Unis, Ron Prosor, . L'entretien aurait été  selon un témoin. , , a commenté l'ambassadeur à l'issu de l'entretien.

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