Far-right National Rally candidates, including one who wore Nazi cap, scrutinized in French election

PARIS (AP) — As it stands on the threshold of power in France, the far-right National Rally is facing scrutiny about some of the candidates it hopes will secure a ruling majority for the party in legislative elections on Sunday, including a woman it has now pulled from the high-stakes race over a photo of her wearing a World War II-era Nazi officer’s peaked cap.

Other National Rally candidates whose suitability is being questioned by the party’s critics and opponents include a woman said by French media to have once held a town employee hostage at gunpoint, a man who may not be eligible to serve as a lawmaker because he is under guardianship, a candidate in Brittany who tweeted that “gas brought justice to the victims of the Shoah” and others facing questions about their absences on the campaign trail.

Digging into candidates’ backgrounds by French media and citizens online risks puncturing the polished image that National Rally leader and three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has sought to craft of her party to shed its historical links to antisemitism, racism, and France’s painful WWII collaboration with the Nazi occupation.

It also has raised questions about the party’s readiness to wield power if it secures an absolute majority in Sunday’s second-round vote to determine the makeup of the 577-seat National Assembly, which would give Le Pen the leverage to force President Emmanuel Macron to accept her 28-year-old protege, Jordan Bardella, as prime minister. French political analysts say the party’s electoral machine has struggled to keep pace with its surge in voter support, including finding and vetting candidates to represent it.