The figure of the French extreme right and the co-founder of the National Front died in Garches in Hauts-de-Seine this Tuesday, January 7. A look back at his Ile-de-France journey in 5 moments.
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The co-founder of the National Front, which reached the second round of the presidential election in 2002, died at the age of 96 in Garches in Yvelines. Jean-Marie Le Pen started in politics in the region as a deputy for the Seine department from 1956 to 1962.
His beginnings in politics
In 1956, Jean-Marie Le Pen was elected, at the age of 27, deputy for the Seine. Unknown to the French at that time, he took advantage of the popularity of his mentor at the time: Pierre Poujade, as well as proportional voting, to enter the Palais-Bourbon.
Member of Parliament for Paris at the turn of the 1960s, Jean-Marie Le Pen became over the years the leader and figure of the French extreme right.
Le Pen seeks to gain a political foothold in Paris
In 1974, Jean-Marie Le Pen did not harvest only 0.75% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election, but from 1983, the FN saw its scores increase. “I am a candidate in the 20th arrondissement of Paris and we can say even more broadly a candidate in Paris”, proclaims Jean-Marie Le Pen.
At that time, Jean-Marie Le Pen was elected municipal councilor in Paris, while the party's number 2, Jean-Pierre Stirbois, obtained 16% of the votes in 1is round of the Dreux municipal elections in March 1983.
In the 1980s, he sought to be elected in Paris. Always provocative. “I thought Mr Chirac was there, I was deceived”quips Jean-Marie Le Pen in front of the television cameras. In 1989, he reached out to the Parisian right in vain. “Either we will unite, we have proposed it, or we will go alone into battle”explains the candidate when asked about his projects.
Suspended prison sentence
At that time, Jean-Marie Le Pen was also regional councilor for Île-de-France. The National Front is making progress, but the appearances of the leader of the National Front in the suburbs regularly provoke hostile reactions. In Sannois in 1988 or in Nanterre in 1993.
In 1997, during the legislative election campaign, he physically attacked Annette Peulvast-Bergeal, the Socialist Party candidate in Mantes-la-Jolie in Yvelines. He was sentenced on appeal to one year of ineligibility and three months in prison for violence. A decision confirmed in cassation a year later. “Mr Le Pen has very often been condemned to the symbolic franc. And I think that in certain cases, the symbolic franc no longer has any meaning, so we must move on”demands the attacked candidate when the conviction is announced.
He returned to court in 2019, he was again sentenced on appeal to a fine of 2,400 euros for two public insults aimed at homosexuals, including the police officer Xavier Jugelé, killed in 2017 in an attack on the Champs-Élysées.
Second round of the presidential election
In 2002, to almost everyone's surprise, Jean-Marie Le Pen qualified for the second round of the presidential election, at the expense of the socialist Lionel Jospin. At the end of the first round in May 2002, he won more than 9% of the votes in Paris. The most notable success of his political career.
Succession et exclusion
His daughter Marine Le Pen succeeded him in 2011 as president of the National Front, of which he became honorary president. He was excluded from the party in 2015. On May 1, 2015, Jean-Marie Le Pen appeared one last time with his daughter on the Place de l'Opéra. He did not completely renounce public life, but his appearances became more rare. At a time when the National Front is beginning its transformation and seeking to normalize itself. Marine Le Pen calls on him to withdraw from political life.
This Tuesday, January 7, 2025, Jean-Marie Le Pen died at the age of 96 in an establishment in Garches in Hauts-de-Seine where he had been admitted several weeks ago, his family said.