French far-right denies Le Pen niece comeback bid

France's National Front sought to shut down speculation Wednesday of a comeback bid by a scion of the far-right Le Pen family which threatens fresh tensions in the squabbling political dynasty. Marion Marechal-Le Pen, the telegenic 28-year-old niece of failed presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, officially stepped back from politics after presidential elections last May. But with the far right in disarray following her aunt's defeat to Emmanuel Macron, there has been speculation that Marechal-Le Pen's strong grassroots support could propel her back to the front line. Revelations that the Catholic hardliner will share a stage with US President Donald Trump and other rightwingers at this week's Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington sent chins wagging on Tuesday. In a column for conservative magazine Valeurs Actuelles, Marechal-Le Pen also announced that she plans to help launch a "political sciences academy" to "train the leaders of tomorrow". FN spokesman Sebastien Chenu was swift to stress that Marechal-Le Pen had called her aunt ahead of the announcement "to make sure there was no ambiguity" and apparently told her: "I am not returning to politics". "Marion had the sensitivity to warn Marine Le Pen about all this and to tell her precisely that she does not want this personal and professional initiative to be seen as a political comeback," Chenu said. - Headaches pile up for Marine - The re-appearance of Marechal-Le Pen -- whose hardline stance on immigration, Islam and abortion commands a loyal following -- comes as her aunt struggles to unite the FN ahead of its party congress next month. Religious and more socially conservative than Marine Le Pen, Marechal-Le Pen has been a darling of FN supporters in the southern heartland who want to keep the party's focus on preserving French identity. Marine Le Pen has sought to change the party's xenophobic image by shifting the focus towards sovereignty and economic policy, but this has proved unpopular with some supporters. The 49-year-old is already grappling with financial and legal woes and the headache of trying to boot her estranged father Jean-Marie Le Pen -- Marion's grandfather -- from his party role as honorary president. Her former right-hand man Florian Philippot, architect of her unpopular plan to leave the euro, left acrimoniously in September and has since started trying to steal her voters with his new party, the Patriots. "The father, the niece and the former right-hand man -- less than three weeks before the National Front congress, Marine Le Pen is not lightening her workload," the daily Le Monde wrote on Wednesday. Marechal Le-Pen, a trained lawyer like her aunt who became France's youngest lawmaker at 22, supposedly quit politics to pursue a career in the private sector and has been studying for an MBA. Writing in Valeurs Actuelles, she described her plans to set up a conservative political science school as a "vocation" that she intends to pursue "alongside other professional activities". "It is not a partisan project," she wrote, insisting the school would not be allied with any political party. "It is, however, a political project. We want to be the fertile ground where all strains of the right can come together and bloom." The school will offer continuing education courses and summer schools, she wrote.