The European Parliament has voted to lift French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's immunity from prosecution.

The legislature voted by a broad majority in Brussels on Thursday to clear the way for the possible prosecution of Le Pen over her tweets of gruesome images of violence by Islamic State extremists. Le Pen, a leading candidate in this year's French presidential election, posted them in response to a journalist who drew an analogy between her anti-immigration National Front party and IS extremists.

Le Pen was trying to show the difference between the two groups but the effort backfired, drawing widespread condemnation. The French interior minister accused her of fomenting Islamic State propaganda.

Le Pen, in addition to being the leader of France's far-right National Front party, is also a lawmaker with the European Parliament.