Far-right French leader Le Pen joins the fray, calls for Turkish rally bans in France


Amid the recent row between Turkey and several European countries over the bans imposed on Turkish officials for the meetings abroad, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen jumped on the bandwagon and called for a ban on all Turkish politicians' meetings in France.

In a tweet posted late Sunday, Le Pen said: "Why do we have to tolerate the remarks on our soil that other democracies have refused? No Turkish election campaign in France." The message ended with her initials "MLP," as commonly used as a signature by other leaders worldwide.

Le Pen's tweet received far greater attention than her usual tweets.

Le Pen's comments came after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's meeting in eastern French city of Metz on Sunday.

On Saturday, the Dutch government canceled the Turkish foreign minister's flight permit and blocked the family minister's convoy from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam. The ministers were due to meet with Turkish society members ahead of the April 16 referendum concerning a constitutional amendment.

Turkish ministers were previously barred from speaking in Germany in early March, while calls for similar bans were also voiced by politicians in Austria and Switzerland.