Far-right firebrand and co-founder of France's anti-immigration National Front movement Jean-Marie Le Pen was 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 private funeral for the co-founder of the main French postwar <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/far-right/" target="_self">far-right</a> movement<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tag/jean-marie-le-pen/" target="_self"> Jean-Marie Le Pen </a>took place on Saturday amid heightened security after his death aged 96 exposed polarising attitudes toward a figure <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">who for decades shook and shocked the country</a>.<br>The funeral in his hometown of La Trinite-sur-Mer in the western Brittany region began in the presence of his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over her polarising father's political mantle, other family members and close friends.<br>Authorities beefed up security ahead of the ceremony, with barriers erected around the cemetery and dozens of police mobilised.<br>Security was tightened and protests banned after hundreds took to the streets in Paris and other cities to pop champagne corks and celebrate Le Pen's death on Tuesday.<br> <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>Marine Le Pen and one of her two sisters, Marie-Caroline, walked the few hundred metres between the family home and the small church of Saint-Joseph under blue skies in front of a small crowd of onlookers and several dozen journalists.<br>Neither Marion Marechal, Jean-Marie Le Pen's granddaughter and a prominent far-right politician, nor Jordan Bardella, the leader of the party Le Pen co-founded, now called the National Rally, were seen entering the church through the main entrance.<br>Around 200 people were expected to be seated inside the church. After the ceremony Le Pen will be buried in the vault where his parents rest.<br> <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>"It's moving for me to pay my last respects to him here and to pray for the salvation of his soul," said one of the guests, Bruno Gollnisch, Jean-Marie Le Pen's one-time right-hand man.<br> "He was a joyful comrade!"<br> Some locals praised Le Pen's devotion to France.<br>"I came to pay tribute to a man who served France and loved France," one mourner said. <br> "We've come to pay tribute to a great man who had the courage to say things," said another. "He was a visionary. He loved France and its people and they had values that are being lost, like love of the nation."<br>On Friday, regional authorities issued an order banning demonstrations to avoid "the risk of disruption and counter-demonstrations likely to provoke clashes". <br>Separately, a ceremony will take place on January 16 at the Notre Dame du Val-de-Grace church in Paris that will be open to the public.<br>Opponents on the left said they could not mourn the death of a "fascist".<br>But the government condemned rallies celebrating Le Pen's passing, and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou described him as a "fighter" and "figure of French political life", comments that themselves caused consternation on the left.<br>Le Pen's staunchly anti-immigration National Front (FN) burst onto the frontline of French politics, and in 2002 he famously eliminated Socialist Lionel Jospin in presidential elections to make the run-off against right-winger Jacques Chirac.<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 France's war against Algeria.<br>His politician daughter Marine Le Pen rapidly took steps towards making the far right 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 anti-Semitism but the pair had reconciled in recent years.<br>President Emmanuel Macron did not make any personal comment on Le Pen's death, with his office issuing a terse written statement saying history would judge Le Pen and adding that the president sent his condolences to the family.<br>But 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," RN party chief Bardella, 29, said in a tribute mentioning none of the controversies that surrounded his life.<br><em>(FRANCE 24 with AFP)</em><br> © 2025 Copyright France 24 - All rights reserved. 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