Far-right firebrand and co-founder of France's anti-immigration National Front movement Jean-Marie Le Pen is to be buried Saturday at a strictly family-only funeral after his death earlier this week aged 96. <br><span class="m-pub-dates__date">Issued on: <time datetime="2025-01-11T07:44:02+0000" pubdate="pubdate">11/01/2025 - 08:44</time></span><br>The co-founder of the main <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/france/" target="_self">French</a> postwar far-right movement <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/jean-marie-le-pen/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Jean-Marie Le Pen</a> will be laid to rest Saturday at a strictly family-only funeral after <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/france/20250107-live-macron-office-says-history-will-judge-jean-marie-le-pen-as-far-right-firebrand-dies-at-96" target="_self">his death aged 96 exposed polarising attitudes towards</a> a figure who for decades shook and shocked the country.<br>The funeral in his hometown of La Trinite-sur-Mer in the Morbihan region of Brittany in western France will take place "in the strictest privacy with family", his relatives said. <br>He will be buried in the vault where his parents rest. A ceremony will take place on January 16 at the Notre Dame du Val-de-Grace church in <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/paris/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Paris</a> that will be open to the public.<br>Le Pen's staunchly anti-immigration National Front (FN) burst into the frontline of <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/french-politics/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">French politics</a>, and in 2002 he famously eliminated Socialist Lionel Jospin in presidential elections to make the run-off against right-winger <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/jacques-chirac/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Jacques Chirac</a>.<br><span class="a-read-more__label">Read more</span><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/france/20250107-thunderclap-the-day-jean-marie-le-pen-staged-the-biggest-upset-in-french-election-history" target="_self" class="a-read-more__link">‘Thunderclap’: The day Jean-Marie Le Pen staged the biggest upset in French election history</a><br>Nicknamed "the devil of the Republic" by opponents, he was often openly racist, made no secret of anti-Semitic views, for which he received criminal convictions, and boasted of torturing prisoners during the war against <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/algeria/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Algeria</a>.<br><span class="a-read-more__label">Read more</span><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/france/20250107-from-colonial-fighter-to-far-right-leader-jean-marie-le-pen-s-life-in-pictures" target="_self" class="a-read-more__link">From colonial fighter to far-right leader: Jean-Marie Le Pen’s life in pictures</a><br>His daughter <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/marine-le-pen/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Marine Le Pen</a> took over his political mantle but rapidly took steps towards making the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/far-right/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">far right</a> an electable force, renaming it the National Rally (RN) and embarking on a policy known as dediabolisation (de-demonisation).<br>She slung her father out of the party for his <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/anti-semitism/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">anti-Semitism</a> but the pair had reconciled in recent years. <br>News magazine Paris Match posted a picture of Marine Le Pen in tears on being informed of the news but deleted the image following protests from the RN.<br>Opponents on the left after Jean-Marie Le Pen's death said they could not mourn the death of a "fascist" while hundreds took to the streets in Paris and other cities to pop champagne corks and celebrate his passing.<br>But the government condemned such scenes and Prime Minister <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/françois-bayrou/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">François Bayrou</a> described him as a "fighter" and "figure of French political life", comments that themselves caused consternation on the left.<br>President <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/emmanuel-macron/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Emmanuel Macron</a> did not make any personal comment, with the presidency issuing a terse written statement saying history would judge Le Pen and adding the president sent his condolences to the family.<br>But Jean-Marie Le Pen's death marked a sign of his political rehabilitation among senior RN figures who rushed to hail his contribution.<br>"He always served France and defended its identity and sovereignty," the RN party chief, 29-year-old <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/jordan-bardella/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">Jordan Bardella</a>, said in a tribute mentioning none of the controversies that surrounded his life.<br> "Many people he loves are waiting for him up there. Many who love him are mourning him down here," said Marine Le Pen, describing her father a "warrior" in a more personal tribute.<br>This posthumous rehabilitation of Jean-Marie Le Pen within his political family "is quite normal because the RN of 2025 is there because there was the FN before," Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist specialising in the extreme right, told AFP.<br>"They can't say anything else, it's a historical fact. The rise and consolidation of the party are due to Jean-Marie Le Pen who imposed <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/immigration/" target="_self" class="gtm-add-suggested-tag">immigration</a> in the debate," he said.<br>(<em>AFP</em>)<br> © 2025 Copyright France 24 - All rights reserved. France 24 is not responsible for the content of external websites. 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