Jean-Marie Le Pen, figure of the French extreme right and finalist in the 2002 presidential election, died Tuesday at the age of 96 in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine), in an establishment where he had been admitted there several weeks ago.
“Jean-Marie Le Pen, surrounded by his family, was called back to God this Tuesday at 12 p.m.”indicated his family in a press release sent to AFP.
The founder of the National Front, which became the National Rally, 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 last June “a profound deterioration” of his physical and psychological state, believing that he was not able or “to be present”, nor of “prepare your defense” at the trial of the assistants of FN MEPs which took place in Paris from September to November.
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 (Hauts-de-Seine).
Outstanding tribune, sulphurous provocateur obsessed with immigration and Jews, patriarch upset by his own, this Breton who liked to be nicknamed “the menhir”, had brought the French far right out of its marginality during a political career that marked the Fifth Republic.
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 Élysée, 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.
“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 current RN boss Jordan Bardella on X.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, after being married to the mother of his daughters Marie-Caroline, Yann and Marine, Pierrette Lalanne, married Jany Le Pen for the second time.
Jean-Marie Le Pen France extreme right politics
