The political class reacted little by little this Tuesday to the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the National Front, at the age of 96. The president of the RN Jordan Bardella salutes a man who “has always served France”, while the LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounces a personality who brought hatred and racism into the public debate. The Élysée also reacted.
It is “a page in French political history that is turning”, writes the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau on X. Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the National Front, finalist in the presidential election to everyone’s surprise in 2002, died at the age of 96 at the Garches hospital in Hauts-de-Seine.
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His daughter Marine Le Pen learned of his death during a trip to Mayotte, in the presence of journalists including Europe 1 special envoy Alexandre Chauveau. The leader of the National Rally deputies did not wish to react for the moment.
Retailleau, Bayrou… The reaction of members of the government
Some leading political leaders have paid tribute to the memory of this far-right figure, like Bruno Retailleau. “Whatever opinion one may have of Jean-Marie Le Pen, he will undoubtedly have left his mark on his era,” continues the tenant of Place Beauvau on X.
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Prime Minister François Bayrou also spoke, shortly after Bruno Retailleau. “Beyond the controversies which were his favorite weapon and the necessary confrontations on the merits, JM Le Pen will have been a figure of French political life. We knew, by fighting him, what a fighter he was,” underlined the leader of the government.
For the Élysée, Jean-Marie Le Pen played a role which “is now subject to the judgment of History”
On this January 7, 2025, largely devoted to commemorating the attack on Charlie Hebdoperpetrated just ten years ago, President Emmanuel Macron has not yet reacted personally to the death of the co-founder of the FN.
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-The Élysée affirmed at the start of the afternoon that Jean-Marie Le Pen had played a “role in public life” which “is now subject to the judgment of History”.
Jean-Marie Le Pen “has always served France”, says Bardella
On the side of the National Rally, heir to the party co-founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, we also salute his memory. The latter “has always served France, defended its identity and its sovereignty”, in “the French army in Indochina and Algeria”, or as “tribune of the people”, declared the president of the RN Jordan Bardella.
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Jean-Marie Le Pen was “an immense patriot, visionary and an embodiment of courage”, for Sébastien Chenu, RN deputy from the North. For him, the disappearance of this figure of the French extreme right “is also the disappearance of a man of immense culture, who carried the hope of millions of French people. He loved France, he entered (in ) its History.”
“The end of a page of the Fifth Republic”, says Eric Ciotti
At the origin of an alliance between the Republicans and the National Rally, Éric Ciotti estimated that Jean-Marie Le Pen “was profoundly French” and that he had “served France with passion, from ward of the nation to candidate in the second round of the presidential election”, in 2002.
“His disappearance marks the end of a page of the Fifth Republic. He was a complex man, with gray areas but also courage and sincere patriotism (…) I call for respect for dignity and privacy of his family in this period of mourning”, he posted on X, sharing his thoughts towards the family of the co-founder of the FN.
“Among the first to alert France of the existential threats that awaited it”, according to Zemmour
Éric Zemmour, classified on the far right of the political spectrum, highlighted the political fight of Jean-Marie Le Pen, in a publication on X.
“Beyond the controversies, beyond the scandals, what we will remember about him in the coming decades is that he was among the first to alert France of the existential threats that awaited it. He will remain the vision of “a man, and his courage, at a time when courageous men were not so numerous”, argued the president of Reconquest!
“The fight against man is over”, “the fight against hatred, racism (…) continues”, writes Mélenchon
Radically different story on the side of La France insoumise. Jean-Luc Mélenchon estimated Tuesday that if the “fight” against Jean-Marie Le Pen was “finished” after the death at 96 of the founder of the National Front, that “against hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism (…) continues.”
“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,” wrote the leader of LFI on X.
“He was not ‘a great servant of France’”, said Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of La France insoumise. “He was nostalgic for collaboration, responsible for torture, a racist and an anti-Semite. He was an enemy of the Republic,” he asserted on X, regretting “the dripping tributes of his heirs today ‘today’ which “remind us that his ideas remain and that the anti-fascist struggle remains burning today.”
