Jean-Marie Le Pen, figure of the French far right and finalist in the 2002 presidential election, died Tuesday at the age of 96. His party hailed a “huge patriot” who “always served France”.
“Jean-Marie Le Pen, surrounded by his family, was called back to God this Tuesday at 12 p.m.,” his family announced in a press release sent to AFP. The founder of the National Front (FN), which became the National Rally (RN), gradually withdrew from political life from 2011, when his daughter Marine Le Pen took over the presidency of the party.
Weakened by several health accidents, a medical expertise noted in June “a profound deterioration” in his physical and psychological state, estimating that he was neither able to “be present” nor to “prepare his defense ” at the trial of the assistants of FN MEPs which took place in Paris last fall.
In mid-November, Jean-Marie Le Pen was hospitalized and then admitted to a structure in Garches, west of Paris, not far from his home in Rueil-Malmaison, in the Paris region.
No regrets
An outstanding tribune, a sulphurous provocateur obsessed with immigration and Jews, a patriarch upset by his own people, Jean-Marie Le Pen brought the French far right out of its marginality.
The most emblematic of his successes will remain unfinished. On April 21, 2002, at the age of 73 and for his fourth candidacy for the Elysée, he created a surprise by qualifying for the second round of the election.
The triumph has its downside: for two weeks, millions of people march against racism and its political incarnation. Above all, Jean-Marie Le Pen allows the easy re-election of his sworn enemy Jacques Chirac.
-The “Menhir” has never expressed any regret for its slippages, controlled or not, often repeated, which have earned it several legal convictions: from the gas chambers “point of detail of history”, to “inequality races” (1996), through the “not particularly inhumane” German Occupation (2005) or the physical attack of a socialist adversary (1997).
Tributes from the RN
“Engaged under the uniform of the French army in Indochina and Algeria, tribune of the people in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he has always served France, defended its identity and its sovereignty”, greeted on the network social X the president of the RN Jordan Bardella.
The vice-president of the party Sébastien Chenu welcomed the “death of an immense patriot, visionary and an incarnation of courage” who “carried the hope of millions of French people”.
“Respect for the dignity of the dead and the grief of their loved ones does not erase the right to judge their actions. Those of Jean-Marie Le Pen remain unbearable. The fight against man is over. The fight against hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that he spread continues,” reacted the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
