He is the heir to a nasty, authoritarian tradition on the French Right, one that has no real equivalent in British politics: the tradition of the anti-Dreyfusards, of Charles Maurras and the Action Franaise, of Vichy. This statement is an outrage.
Francois Mitterand, the patron saint of French Communists, WAS a Vichy collaborationist Stiefel-licking surrender monkey; no such charge could be leveled at Le Pen by any journalist with a nanogram of integrity.
Le Pen would have likely fought with the a right-wing Resistance group had he been of age. He is no "surrender monkey".