PARIS - Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French far-right leader, provoked uproar Saturday with anti-Semitic slur just minutes after he handed over the National Front reins to his daughter, Marine.

The veteran far-righter, whose racist and xenophobic outbursts have punctuated French political life for almost four decades, remained true to form to the end. Speaking of a French-Jewish journalist who complained of being thrown out of the party’s gala dinner, beaten and receiving racial abuse, Le Pen said his origins “could neither be seen on his (press) card, nor on his nose.”

The remark immediately undermined the efforts of Marine, 42, to make France’s far-right National Front party into a “popular force” with a mainstream following.