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Madonna & The Swastika
The tour began last week with a May 31 stop in Tel Aviv, Israel. The montage was displayed on a huge screen while the Material Girl performed the tune “Nobody Knows Me.” The Guardian reports that in addition to showing an image of Le Pen’s eyes and forehead with a swastika on her face, followed by “an image resembling Adolf Hitler,” the montage included pictures of Pope Benedict, Chinese President Hu Jintao and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
The Guardian points out that Le Pen, the Front National president, has been trying to distance the far right party from supporters with Nazi sympathies. Le Pen’s father, the founder of the National Front party, was fined in 2005 for defending the Nazi occupation of France during World War II and then found guilty earlier this year for condoning war crimes, according to the New York Times.
Photo: AP Photo
Kicking off her new world tour in front of tens of thousands of ecstatic fans at the Ramat Gan stadium near Tel Aviv, Israel.
Le Pen says that Madonna better not try and pull the same stunt when the tour comes to France later this summer. The singer is scheduled to play Paris July 14 and Nice, France, Aug. 21.
“If she does that in France, we’ll be waiting for her,” Le Pen said, according to the Guardian, which notes that a party official told French newspaper 20 Minutes that the Front National’s lawyer was “looking at possible legal action.”
Le Pen also took a shot at Madonna’s age, saying, “It’s understandable when aging singers who need publicity go to such extremes. Her songs don’t work any more.”
The next stop of Madonna’s 2012 world tour is June 7 in Aslantepe, Turkey, at Turk Telekom Arena. Dates are booked through late December.
Click here for the Guardian’s story.