France's National Front Party has announced that it will sue Madonna after the pop-star displayed an image in a concert backdrop showing the party's leader, Marine Le Pen, with a swastika superimposed on her forehead.
The image has been part of the show throughout Madonna's 30-nation "MDNA" tour, appearing on a screen while the singer performs the song "Nobody Knows Me".
Le Pen threatened legal action if it was shown when Madonna brought the show to France. Madonna appeared in Paris on July 14, and the image was shown.
The BBC quoted National Front vice-president Florian Philippot as calling it "an odious comparison", and saying that a lawsuit would be filed this week.
The National Front is France's third-largest party, though it is considerably smaller than the Socialist Party or the Union for a Popular Front and holds only two seats in France's parliament.
The rightwing party is widely seen as anti-immigration and anti-EU. Platforms within the last ten years have included reintroduction of the death penalty to France and tighter French border controls.
The National Front has been seen as anti-Muslim, in its rhetoric against non-European immigrants; but it has also been seen as anti-Jewish. It has been highly critical of Israeli military action; and party officials - including Marine Le Pen's father - have expressed what some consider revisionist views of the German occupation of France during World War II and of the Nazi concentration camps.
Le Pen was elected head of the party in 2011, taking over the reins from her father, who had headed it since its foundation in 1972. While she too has criticized Israeli policy and what she sees as the failure of French Muslims to assimilate, she has also been seen as a more moderate influence on the party's image.
Nevertheless, the National Front continues to battle accusations of racism and fascism, and its reaction to Madonna's image highlights a sore spot.
"The images that were projected draw a terrible link between the party and an ideology that we reject," CNN quoted Philippot as saying.
An earlier performance on the tour, in which the Le Pen image is visible, can be viewed here:
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