French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen dies at 96 happymamay

Far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has died at the age of 96, according to what his family said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse.

Le Pen, who had been in care for several weeks, died on Tuesday afternoon “surrounded by his loved ones,” his family said.

Le Pen – a Holocaust denier and an unrepentant extremist on race, gender and immigration – founded the French far-right National Front party in 1972.

He reached a runoff in the presidential election against Jacques Chirac in 2002.

Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, took over as party president in 2011. Since then, she has renamed the party the National Rally, turning it into one of the main political forces in France.

Jordan Bardella, who succeeded Marine Le Pen as party leader in 2022, said that Jean-Marie “always served France” and “defended its identity and sovereignty.”

Far-right nationalist Eric Zemmour said on Channel

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical left party France Insensitive, said that respecting the dignity of the dead and the grief of their families “does not negate the right to judge their actions. Jean-Marie Le Pen’s actions are intolerable.” ). “The struggle against the man is over. The struggle against the hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism he spreads continues.”

For several decades, Le Pen has been the most controversial political figure in France. His critics denounced him as a far-right fanatic and the courts convicted him several times for his extremist statements.

In 2015, he was expelled from the National Rally party after repeating his famous Holocaust denial.

The dismissal also came during a public row with his daughter, who accused him of repeating Holocaust denial to try to “save himself from obscurity.”