France's far-right presidential candidate, Mr Jean-Marie Le Pen, pulled out of a press conference at the European Parliament yesterday after MEPs staged an impromptu protest.
Mr Le Pen, who is an MEP, sent a political associate to tell the press that the presidential candidate had been confronted with "a wall of hate" and had decided to call off the press conference.
MEP's and anti-Nazi protesters held up "Stop the Nazis" posters in the press room, which was filled with hundreds of journalists and dozens of camera crews. Outside the parliament, protesters clashed with security guards as they tried to enter the building.
Earlier, Mr Le Pen was booed when he rose to speak in a parliamentary debate about the Middle East.
The parliament's President, Mr Pat Cox, had to call for order before Mr Le Pen could deliver his one-minute speech, in which he accused European policy-makers of following too blindly a US foreign policy position.
"France and Europe are absent since they have fallen in with orders of the United States. We can only deplore this," he said.
Mr Le Pen wants to withdraw France from the euro-zone, restore the French franc and revoke a number of EU treaties.
