Jean-Marie Le Pen was a polarising figure in French politics known for his fiery rhetoric that included Holocaust denial.
Tuesday 7 January 2025 12:37, UK
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the French far-right National Front party, has died aged 96.
Le Pen shook the French political establishment when he unexpectedly reached the presidential election run-off vote against Jacques Chirac in 2002, with his pugnacious mix of populism and charisma.
Despite losing in a landslide, he rewrote the parameters of French politics in a career spanning four decades, harnessing voter discontent over immigration and job security – heralding president-elect Donald Trump’s own rise in some ways.
After leading the then-National Front from 1972 to 2011, he was succeeded as party chief by his daughter, Marine Le Pen.
She has since run for the presidency three times and turned the party, now called the National Rally, into one of the country’s main political forces.
Born in 1928, Le Pen was a polarising figure known for his fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation.
His controversial statements, including Holocaust denial, led to multiple convictions and strained his political alliances, including with his own daughter who kicked him out the party he founded.
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Jordan Bardella, current president of the National Rally, confirmed Le Pen’s death on social media.
He said: “Today I am thinking with sadness of his family, his loved ones, and of course of Marine whose mourning must be respected.”
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