French far-right firebrand Le Pen dies

The founder of the French National Front party (now named National Rally), Jean-Marie Le Pen, has died at the age of 96 at a care facility “surrounded by his loved ones,” his family said in a statement cited by national media.

Born in 1928 to a fisherman and a seamstress, Le Pen worked in numerous occupations throughout his life, including fisherman, deep-sea miner, and apartment surveyor. He also volunteered for the French Foreign Legion’s parachute regiment twice, and was involved in the Suez conflict in 1956 and the Algerian War of 1957.

He started his political career in the 1950s and was elected to the French National Assembly twice between 1956 and 1962 before founding his own party, the National Front, in 1972.

Le Pen also ran for president in France in 1974, 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007, and came second in 2002 with almost 18% of the vote.

In 1984, the politician won a seat in the EU Parliament and was consistently re-elected for almost two decades until 2003. He then returned to the European legislature in 2004 and retained his seat until 2019.

Throughout his career, Le Pen courted controversy with his views, often described as “far right.” He was known for his staunch anti-immigration stance and for downplaying the Holocaust, as well as speaking favorably of Marshal Philippe Petain – the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France during World War II.

The veteran politician handed over the reins over the party to his daughter, Marine Le Pen, in 2011 and became its honorary president. He was expelled from the movement by Marine four years later after saying that the gas chambers used to kill Jews in the Holocaust were only a “detail of history,” and urging France to join forces with Russia to save “the white world.”

At that time, Marine Le Pen said her father was “committing political suicide” with his remarks about Jews, migrants, sexual minorities, and on other issues. Jean-Marie responded by saying he would not vote for his own daughter in the 2017 presidential election.

Marine Le Pen has distanced herself and her party from the most extreme views of her father, and rebranded the National Front as the National Rally in 2018.  The National Rally and its allies currently hold a total of 89 seats in the French National Assembly, making it the second biggest opposition group in parliament after the left-wing New Popular Front coalition.