The European parliament on Wednesday lifted the immunity of two National Front lawmakers at the request of French prosecutors.
The European Parliament said in a statement MEPs adopted the decision "by a show of hands ... in plenary session in Strasbourg".
The former chief of the far-right National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has been a MEP since 1984, faces a judicial investigation for "public defamation" of a racist nature for racist remarks he made in August 2009.
He told French radio RTL "90 percent of the crimes have been committed by either an immigrant or a person of immigrant origin".
Earlier this year, he was formally charged for inciting hatred, after MEPs voted to lift his parliamentary immunity to investigate anti-Semitic remarks made in 2014.
Le Pen has been convicted several times for racism, inciting racial hatred and denying or minimizing the Holocaust, which are crimes in France.
He was expelled from the National Front party in August 2015 following a family feud with his daughter, Marine Le Pen, the party's current leader.
Mylene Troszczynski, is being prosecuted for similar charges and that of "provocation to hatred or violence" for sharing on Twitter, in September 2015, a photograph of a group of women completely veiled, allegedly standing in front of a family allowance fund in France. The picture turned out to be manipulated.
On Thursday, the European Parliament must consider another request to lift parliamentary immunity-this time for the younger Le Pen for a defamation case filed by Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi.
French prosecutors also lodged in April a demand to lift the far-right leader's immunity in connection to a separate investigation into potential fake jobs of some parliamentary assistants of the party.
The demand is being processed in accordance with the usual procedure.
