Word: penned
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What could France's extreme-right leader and notorious xenophobe Jean-Marie Le Pen possibly have in common with a black comic whose leftist convictions and anti-racism activism once propelled him into politics with the objective of defeating a candidate from Le Pen's National Front party...
...raging anti-Semitic streak, for one. Over the past few years, Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala and Le Pen seem to have engaged in an increasingly sinister competition to see which man can outrage more people with comments designed to bait Jews. Now those efforts have earned Dieudonné something both men have repeatedly won in the past: a trial on charges of anti-Semitic offenses. It remains to be seen whether the trial will complicate the 41-year-old entertainer's plans to lead his self-described "anti-Zionist" list of candidates into June's European Parliamentary elections...
...part of the "Euro-Palestine" list of candidates running for the European Parliament. In June, he's fronting an "anti-Zionism" group that also includes a former Le Pen speech writer, a radical black supremacist, and an author whose 2002 book The Horrifying Fraud became a bestseller in France by alleging that 9/11 was an inside job carried out by the U.S. government...
...Dieudonné's embrace of extreme rightist views contrasts with his earlier support of leftist causes. In 1997, Dieudonné staged a long-shot bid for parliament in the National Front stronghold of Dreux, with an aim to denying victory to Le Pen's candidate - a goal which was attained when mainstream leftist, centrists, and conservative parties united to form a common front. Even after that campaign, Dieudonné continued defending progressive ideals that included anti-racism, socio-economic justice for residents of France's blighted suburban housing projects, and protecting the rights of illegal immigrants in France...
...within a decade, Dieudonné's crusading of leftist causes had brought him in conflict with Israel's policies on Palestine - which in turn seemed to motivate his increasingly controversial comments about Jews in general. By 2007, he was seen getting friendly with his former nemesis Le Pen - at one point turning up as one of the rare minority faces at a National Front party convention. In July 2008, their common interests and outlooks had come close enough together that Le Pen confirmed rumors he'd become the godfather of one of Dieudonné's children...