The BBC's Jonathan Beale: "Few MEPs had any sympathy for Mr Le Pen"

The assembly voted by 420 to 20 with six abstentions in favour of a request from German prosecutors to let Mr Le Pen go to trial over his comment that the murder of 6 million Jews in World War II was a mere detail of history.

Once bitten, but not twice shy

The request to waive Mr Le Pen's European parliamentary immunity came from prosecutors in Munich last April, after the far-right leader repeated comments made in France, while on a visit to Munich to launch a book.

On that occasion he said: "I will say it again, the gas chambers were a detail in the history of the Second World War. If you take a thousand-page book written about the Second World War you will see that 50 million died, and if in the thousand pages, there are two pages which mention the gas chambers and the issue of the gas chambers is referred in only 10 to 15 lines on those two pages, that is what you might call a detail."

Construction is underway to build a holocaust memorial in Berlin

Unlike the law in France, it is a crime in Germany to deny or diminish the horror of the Holocaust.

Articles 130 and 220 of the German Criminal Code make it an offence to approve of, deny or present as inoffensive any act committed under the Nazi regime. The punishment for Mr Le Pen could be up to five years' imprisonment.

It is now up to the German authorities to decide whether to issue a warrant for Mr Le Pen's arrest. At present, it is unclear whether the authorities would be prepared to pursue the far-right leader abroad.

When asked after the vote whether he would go to Munich to face trial, Mr Le Pen shrugged his shoulders and said "perhaps".

The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of lifting immunity

MEPs are given immunity from prosecution to protect members from being taken to court over their work activities and to enable free speech, but the European Parliament's Rules Committee recommended that Mr Le Pen should have his immunity lifted.

In a speech to the parliament before the vote, Mr Le Pen said: "You should vote massively to refuse this lifting of immunity. Parliament's are not legitimate if their members are not free."

But in this case, most political parties believe that the 70-year-old leader of the National Front overstepped the mark. In Germany, an MEP or MP would automatically have his immunity lifted for such comments.

Mr Le Pen has already been barred from fighting the next Euro Elections in June by a French court after he was convicted in April for assaulting a Socialist candidate during campaigning for general elections last year.

The incident happened in the Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie, where Mr Le Pen's daughter was also a candidate.