Far-right politician Marine Le Pen has fractured her spine after falling into an empty swimming pool in France, it emerged tonight.
News of the 44-year-old's 'rather serious' accident will send shockwaves around nationalist groups, not just in France but across Europe.
Le Pen, who is leader of the National Front (FN), is one of the most high-profile right-wing politicians on the continent, with her hardline anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda regularly winning a huge number of votes at elections.
Family politics: Marine Le Pen, with her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who she succeeded as leader of the Front National
A poll in May showed that the current president, Francois Hollande, would lose to her if France were to vote tomorrow.
Miss Le Pen has been capitalising recently on growing discontent in over economic gloom, record unemployment levels and President Hollande's personal unpopularity.
News of her accident was broken by her notorious father, the convicted racist and anti-Semite Jean Marie Le Pen, who was runner-up in the French presidential elections of 2002.
Explaining his daughter's absence from an FN meeting in Limoges today, Le Pen senior said: 'Marine could not come because she was the victim of a rather serious accident that prevented her from moving. She fell into an empty pool and got a fracture of the spine.'
A statement released by the FN said Le Pen had a fracture of the sacral - the triangle-shaped bone at the bottom of the spine.
It is a particularly painful condition which severely limits movement and may require surgery to put right.
Le Pen's accident happened a week ago but, said the FN, she was determined it would not stop her fulfilling future engagements.
Modernising influence: Marine Le Pen is a pivotal force in French politics after moving her party's image away from extremism and racism
The FN, which was founded by her father, is the third largest political force in France, and has been led by Le Pen since January 2011.
Since then she has attempted to modernise its image for extremism, and for intimidating Jews, Muslims, and those from racial minorities.
In recent weeks she has been at the forefront of the campaign to prevent gay marriage in France, and has also been a fierce critic of Francois Hollande's Socialist government.
She wants to severely reduce immigration to France, reinstate capital punishment, and withdraw from the European Union.
Like her father, Le Pen's energy and enthusiasm has come to personify the FN - something which could now be put at risk by her accident.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2326724/Far-right-French-politician-Marine-Le-Pen-seriously-injured-fracturing-spine-swimming-pool-fall.html#ixzz2TqtKqzF6
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