PARIS — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front, known for his vehement opposition to immigration and multiculturalism, a stance that garnered both fervent support and widespread criticism, has passed away at the age of 96.
A divisive figure in French politics, Le Pen’s controversial pronouncements, including Holocaust denial, resulted in multiple convictions and strained his political relationships.
Le Pen, who once advanced to the second round of the 2002 presidential election, eventually became estranged from his daughter, who subsequently renamed his National Front party, expelled him, and transformed it into a major political force, distancing the party from his extremist image.
, president of the National Rally (the party’s current name), confirmed Le Pen’s death on the social media platform X on Tuesday. Bardella’s surprisingly warm tribute acknowledged Le Pen’s contentious past, including his involvement in the Algerian War, describing him as a “tribune of the people” who “always served France,” and offered condolences to his family, including Marine.
This statement seemed to soften the party’s previously established distance between its controversial founder and its more refined, contemporary image under Marine Le Pen’s leadership.
Marine Le Pen, thousands of kilometers away in Mayotte, was assessing the damage from Cyclone Chido when her father passed away.
Despite his removal from the party in 2015, Le Pen’s highly controversial legacy remains, significantly impacting decades of French political history and shaping the trajectory of the far right.
His death occurs at a critical juncture for his daughter, who faces a possible prison sentence and a ban from holding public office if found guilty in an ongoing embezzlement trial.
A prominent figure in French politics for decades, the outspoken Jean-Marie Le Pen was a shrewd political strategist and a gifted orator who used his charisma to captivate audiences with his anti-immigration message.
The stout, silver-haired son of a Breton fisherman saw himself as a man on a mission — to preserve France’s identity under the banner of the National Front. Choosing Joan of Arc as the party’s patron saint, Le Pen primarily targeted Islam and Muslim immigrants, blaming them for France’s economic and social problems.
A former paratrooper and Foreign Legionnaire who fought in Indochina and Algeria, he led his supporters into political and ideological battles with a flair that defined his career.
“If I advance, follow me; if I die, avenge me; if I shirk, kill me,” Le Pen declared at a 1990 party congress, illustrating the dramatic style that fueled his followers’ enthusiasm for decades.
Le Pen, who lost an eye in a youthful street fight and wore a black eyepatch for years, was a constant presence in French political life, impossible for politicians of both the left and right to ignore.
In election after election, he played the spoiler role, forcing rivals to react defensively and, at times, to court far-right voters.
Convicted multiple times for antisemitism and frequently accused of xenophobia and racism, Le Pen consistently maintained that he was simply a patriot defending the identity of “eternal France.”
Le Pen had recently been excused from prosecution on health grounds in a high-profile trial concerning his party’s suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds, which commenced in September.
French judicial authorities placed Le Pen under legal guardianship in February at his family’s request as his health deteriorated, according to French media reports. He had been in poor health for a considerable period.
Le Pen was notably convicted in 1990 for a radio comment made three years earlier in which he referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a “detail in World War II history.” In 2015, he reiterated the remark, stating he “did not at all” regret it, provoking the anger of his daughter — by then the party leader — and resulting in another conviction in 2016.
He was also convicted for a 1988 remark linking a Cabinet minister with Nazi crematory ovens, and for a 1989 comment blaming the “Jewish international” for helping foster “this anti-national spirit.”
In another setback, Le Pen lost his European Parliament seat for a year in 2002 for assaulting a Socialist politician during a 1997 election campaign.
More recently, Le Pen and 26 National Front officials, including his daughters Marine and Yann Le Pen, have been accused of misusing funds allocated for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead performed political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Jean-Marie Le Pen was deemed unfit to provide testimony.
___
Ganley, who retired from The Associated Press, contributed to this report.
