The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen further highlights the divide he created in the French political landscape. When his supporters paid tribute to him upon the announcement of his death, his fierce detractors highlighted the controversies that marked his career.
Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, was one of the first to salute the memory of Jean-Marie Le Pen. “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,” he said. written on X.
Sébastien Chenu, vice-president of the party, estimated that “the disappearance of Jean-Marie Le Pen is that of an immense patriot, visionary and an incarnation of courage”. “It is also the disappearance of a man of immense culture, who brought the hope of millions of French people,” he added.
MP RN Thomas Ménage paid tribute to a “precursor of the national movement” who “denounced before anyone else the path France was taking and announced the difficulties it faces today”.
Éric Zemmour salutes “his courage”
The former 2022 presidential candidate, Éric Zemmour, also paid tribute to the founder of the National Front: “Beyond the controversies, beyond the scandals, what we will remember about him in the coming decades is 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,” added the former polemicist.
Jean-Marie Le Pen “is a character who carved his life out of the flesh of French history,” said Gilbert Collard on CNews. On BFMTV, the same evokes the gifts of “verbal prophecy” of the founder of the FN, but also “controversies, his trademark”.
“A page in French political history is turning”
For the Élysée, Jean-Marie Le Pen played a “role in public life” which “is now subject to the judgment of History”. For his part, Prime Minister François Bayrou estimated that “beyond the controversies which were his favorite weapon and the necessary confrontations on the merits”, Jean-Marie Le Pen “will have been a figure of French political life”. “We knew, by fighting him, what a fighter he was,” he added on X.
For Bruno Retailleau, “a page in French political history is turning”. “Whatever opinion one may have of Jean-Marie Le Pen, he will undoubtedly have left his mark on his era.” The Minister of the Interior also sends his condolences to his daughter, Marine Le Pen, “and to her loved ones. »
“A fascist from another time is gone”
Among his opponents, the leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, estimated that “the fight against man is over”, but “the fight against hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism which he has spread, continue.”
François Ruffin is much more virulent. “Friends of Vichy and torture in Algeria. The FN founded with the Waffen-SS, the Durafour crematorium and the details of history,” he lists. “A fascist from another time is gone. But leaves behind very current heirs. Who, today, honor the tribune and the servant of France. Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead, his racist ideas remain to be fought.”
PCF spokesperson Ian Brossat, for his part, called for “fighting” the “nauseating ideas” of Jean-Marie Le Pen. Same tone among the spokesperson for Lutte Ouvrière, Nathalie Arthaud, who wrote: “All that remains is to combat his nauseating, racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, reactionary and anti-worker ideas that his descendants continue to spread. »