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Hundreds of opponents gathered in several cities in France to celebrate the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, historic leader of the country’s far right. “This filthy racist is dead,” read a poster in Paris. The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, reacted and called the demonstrations “shameful”.
Le Pen died this Tuesday 7th, aged 96. He was in a nursing home in Garches, west of Paris, because of his poor health.
“Historic figure of the extreme right, he played a role in the public life of our country for almost seventy years, which is now up to History to judge”, declared President Emmanuel Macron in a statement, in which he expressed condolences to the family.
Founder of the National Front in 1972 and known for his xenophobic and anti-Semitic comments, Le Pen was a leader of the far right and became the youngest legislator in France, at 27 years old.
“Menhir’s” greatest political success, however, came in 2002, at the age of 73, when he reached the second round of the presidential election. He lost to the conservative Jacques Chirac after a massive mobilization against him.
After five attempts, he handed over the reins of the party, in 2011, to his daughter Marine Le Pen, who renamed it in 2018 as National Regroupment. In 2017 and 2022, she reached the second round, but was defeated by Macron on both occasions.
Relations between father and daughter were not always cordial. Marine expelled Jean-Marie from the party in 2015, after he considered the Holocaust a “detail” of World War II history. Throughout his life, the extremist was condemned on several occasions for his xenophobic, racist and homophobic statements, especially for denying crimes against humanity.
Veteran leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Melenchon wrote this Tuesday that the fight against Jean-Marie Le Pen is over, but “the fight against hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism continues”.
Born in the port city of La Trinité sur Mer, in the west of France, on June 20, 1928, Jean-Marie Le Pen participated in the French colonial wars in Algeria, where he was accused of torture, which he denied – and in Vietnam. “Having served in the French Army in Indochina and Algeria, he has always been at the service of France and defended its identity and sovereignty,” wrote the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, in X.
In recent years, he has made fewer public appearances due to his poor health. In 2024, Justice appointed his three daughters – Marine, Marie.Caroline and Yann – as his representatives, one year after a heart problem in April 2023.
In June, the profound deterioration of his physical and psychological state, according to a medical report, prevented him from appearing as a defendant in the trial against his party for the embezzlement of public funds from the European Parliament when he was a deputy.
