Le Pen tells lustful teens the answer is in their hands

He has advocated patriotism and zero immigration, but the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen this week came up with a new way for young people to serve their country: masturbation.

Asked at a debate whether condoms should be distributed in high schools, he resorted to Latin to suggest that restless teenagers might take the problem into their own hands. He advised "those worked up" to resort to "manu militari". "It's a much simpler method," Mr Le Pen pronounced.

Mr Le Pen, whose daughter and campaign manager, Marine, has been softening the party's image and attempting to attract women with more policies on the family, was attending a debate organised by Elle magazine, entitled "What women want".

The 78-year-old former paratrooper and National Front leader faced protests and heckling on his arrival at the event at the elite graduate school, Sciences Po. After telling the audience that women faced a "social handicap", he responded to boos by shouting: "Bunch of imbeciles!"

But his remarks do not appear to have hurt his electoral chances. Yesterday, his approval rating hit its highest level of the campaign so far, with a survey in Le Parisien giving him 16% - only 0.8% less than the shock score that catapulted him into the second round run-off against Jacques Chirac in 2002. The rightwing former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was in the lead with 26% followed by the Socialist Ségolène Royal on 23.5% and the centrist François Bayrou on 21%.

Yesterday Mr Le Pen made a surprise visit to a multi-racial housing estate north of Paris telling a crowd: "We want to help you get out of these suburban ghettos where French politicians have parked you."

Mr Le Pen was not the only candidate seeking to explain colourful use of language yesterday. Mr Sarkozy came under attack from a former ally who says he called him "an arsehole" and "an unfaithful bastard" during the riots crisis of 2005. Azouz Begag makes the accusation in a new book.

Guardian