Jean-Marie Le Pen, major figure of the French far right, is dead

Jean-Marie Le Pen, a major figure of the French far right and finalist in the 2002 presidential election, died Tuesday at the age of 96 in the Paris region, in an establishment where he had been admitted several weeks ago.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, surrounded by his family, was called back to God this Tuesday at 12 p.m.announced his family in a press release sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Engaged in 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 sovereigntygreeted Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally (RN), heir to the National Front (FN) co-founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, on X.

Mr. Le Pen was a historical figure of the far right French whose role in the public life of our country for almost seventy years […] now falls to the judgment of Historyreacted the Élysée in a press release.

Il will have been a figure in political lifebeyond controversies which were his favorite weapon and necessary clashes on the meritsdeclared for his part French Prime Minister François Bayrou.

Her daughter Marine Le Pen was on a plane Tuesday midday that was to bring her back to Paris from the French archipelago of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, where she went to express her solidarity after the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido.

The founder of FN 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, Jean-Marie Le Pen was evaluated by doctors who noted in June a profound deterioration of his physical and psychological state. They felt 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.

Outstanding tribune, sulphurous provocateur obsessed with immigration and Jews, patriarch upset by his own, the one who liked to be nicknamed the Menhir had brought the French extreme right out of its marginality.

His death was announced while part of the French political class gathered on Tuesday in front of a Hyper Cacher store at Porte de Vincennes in Paris, ten years after the attacks of January 2015.

The dream of bringing the far right to power

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 French presidency, 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.

Twenty-two years later, when the RN had just triumphed in the European elections, a providential dissolution decided by President Emmanuel Macron gave a glimpse of the possibility that his daughter Marine would take the far right to power, a dream to which he had finally started to believe, but still crashed on a republican front.

The fight against man is over

Jean-Marie Le Pen, after being married to Pierrette Lalanne, the mother of his daughters Marie-Caroline, Yann and Marine, married Jany Le Pen for the second time.

The vice-president of the party Sébastien Chenu reported the death of an immense patriot, visionary and an incarnation of courage Who brought 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. That against the hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that he spread, continueswrote for his part the leader of the radical left in France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on X.