This Tuesday, January 7, 2025, Jean-Marie Le Pen died. Founder of the National Front in the early 1970s, Marine Le Pen’s father had a long political career, which notably took him to the second round of the 2002 presidential election.
Jean-Marie Le Pen has died this Tuesday, January 7, 2025 at the age of 96, his family announced to AFP. On July 3, the news on the state of health concerning the politician was not good, since there had been reports of a “profound deterioration” of his physical and psychological state. Already in April 2023, the founder of the National Front was urgently hospitalized after feeling unwell at his home in Rueil-Malmaison, in Hauts-de-Seine. “Severe fatigue, perhaps of a cardiac naturejustified immediate hospitalization from his doctors” a source close to the politician indicated to our colleagues at Point.
In February 2022, the politician had already been hospitalized for a mild form of stroke which also occurred at his home, but without his condition being considered too worrying by the nursing staff.
Death of Jean-Marie Le Pen at the head of a political dynasty
Launched onto the political scene in the 1950s, Jean-Marie Le Pen participated in the founding of the National Front in 1972, before taking over the presidency of the party and becoming its symbol. He will participate in five times in the presidential election (1974, 1988, 1995, 2002 and 2007) failing three times in fourth place among the candidates. But in 2002, he experienced what was undoubtedly the greatest feat of his career: to everyone’s surprise, he managed to overtake Lionel Jospin for afford a second round of the presidential electionwhich he ended up losing to Jacques Chirac, re-elected with more than 82% of the votes. Unable to ride the wave of this success, Jean-Marie Le Pen finally stepped aside in 2010 to make way for his daughter Marine Le Pen, elected president of the party in 2011 and undisputed leader since that time. Behind the scenes, his father nevertheless remains a fervent commentator on French political life, regularly granting interviews from the office of his home in Hauts-de-Seine.
Besides Marine, the politician was the father of Marie-Caroline and Yann, fruits of his first marriage to Pierrette Lalanne, before he remarried in 1991 with his last wife Jany. He is also the grandfather of Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, who is also very active on the political scene.
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