French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has died at the age of 96, according to a family statement sent to AFP.
Le Pen, who had been in a childcare center for several weeks, died in the middle of the day on Tuesday “surrounded by her loved ones”, the family said.
Le Pen – a Holocaust denier and an unrepentant extremist on race, gender and immigration – founded France’s far-right National Front party in 1972.
He reached the presidential election against Jacques Chirac in 2002.
Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, took over as party leader in 2011. Since then he has renamed the group National Rally, turning it into one of the political forces in France.
Jordan Bardella, who succeeded Marine Le Pen as party chairman in 2022, said Jean-Marie “always works for France” and “defends its identity and sovereignty”.
Right-wing nationalist Eric Zemmour said in X that “beyond the controversies and scandals” Le Pen will be remembered for being “among the first to warn France of the threats”.
Respecting the dignity of the dead and the grief of their families “does not remove the right to judge their actions. Those of Jean-Marie Le Pen were intolerable”, said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI). ). “The struggle against this man is over. The fight against hatred, racism, Islamophobia and the bigotry he spreads continues.”
For several decades, Le Pen was France’s most controversial political figure. His critics denounced him as a bully and the courts convicted him many times because of his strong words.
In 2015, he was kicked out of the National Rally after repeating his denial of the Holocaust.
The dismissal also came amid a public row with his daughter, who accused him of repeatedly denying the Holocaust to try to “extricate himself from obscurity”.
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