Reactions to the disappearance of Jean-Marie Le Pen have multiplied in the ranks of the National Rally since the announcement of the death of the co-founder of the party with the tricolor flame, at the age of 96 this Tuesday, January 7. But also well beyond. “A historic figure of the extreme right, he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly seventy years, which is now subject to the judgment of History,” indicates the Elysée in a press release through in which the president addresses his “condolences” to the family and loved ones of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Less terse: the messages posted by Prime Minister François Bayrou and his Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, on the social network Marie Le Pen was a figure in French political life. We knew, by fighting him, what a fighter he was,” writes the head of government. “A page in French political history is turning,” believes Bruno Retailleau. “Whatever opinion one may have of Jean-Marie Le Pen, he will undoubtedly have left his mark on his era,” the Vendéen insists.
“Bayrou’s words are unworthy of our history”
On the social network and discrimination. “The shame and indignity to the end of François Bayrou and Bruno Retailleau. We therefore have a government which pays homage to a propagator of racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic hatred, to avoid the censorship of its heirs,” writes ecologist Thomas Dossus. A reference to the 12 deputies of the National Rally, likely to censor the government at any time by adding their voices to those of France Insoumise.
“Anti-Semitism, revisionism, racism and homophobia are not polemics. Jean-Marie Le Pen, through his actions and his words, found himself outside the republican framework. He was even convicted for it. Bayrou’s words are unworthy of our history,” laments communist Pierre Ouzoulias, grandson of a resistance fighter. Same annoyance among the socialist Rachid Temal, who calls on the Prime Minister for “decency”.
“Jean-Marie Le Pen was not a political leader like any other”
“To salute his memory is to take on a very heavy responsibility. We know that the Prime Minister’s government is in a precarious situation, but from there to pay tribute to a racist and anti-Semitic fanatic…”, echoes his colleague Ian Brossat, PCF senator from Paris, to Public Senate. “Jean-Marie Le Pen was not a political leader like any other, all his life he instilled the venom of hatred and division into the political debate,” warns the elected official.
The socialist Laurence Rossignol asks the tenant of Matignon to “apologize, flatly, very flatly”. A little earlier today, in a more laconic but no less impactful manner, this former minister of François Hollande reposted a simple caricature of the cartoonist Charb, one of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
We see the patriarch of the French far right exclaiming: “I am racist, why not you? » This Tuesday, the death of Jean-Marie was announced while the commemoration ceremony of the 10e anniversary of the jihadist attack which left twelve dead on January 7, 2015 within the editorial staff of the satirical weekly.
Elected by French people abroad, the ecologist Mélanie Vogel had a thought for the minorities who were regularly the target of attacks by Jean-Marie Le Pen during his long political career. “Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead. Thoughts of the Algerians he tortured, of the victims of the Shoah he denied, of all the targets of the far-right. His ideas, and the danger they represent for our democracies, are very much alive. Let’s finally beat his heirs,” writes the senator on her X account.
“He devoted his life to France, nourished the debate, left a legacy”
On the right of the hemicycle, the few reactions publicly expressed to the disappearance of Jean-Marie Le Pen mostly come from supporters of the conservative right. “Ward of the nation, French fighter and man of convictions, his dark side and his slippages will unfortunately have lastingly tainted his career and his struggles,” notes Bouches-du-Rhône senator Stéphane Le Rudulier, former spokesperson for Eric Ciotti. “Jean-Marie Le Pen made unacceptable comments, proposals which far too often strayed from the republican framework, but he devoted his life to France,” observes Valérie Boyer, also senator for Bouches-du-Rhône.
“Jean-Marie Le Pen has sometimes been excessive, sometimes scandalous or reprehensible. But he devoted his life to France, fueled debate, left a legacy, and participated in democratic life. There is no honorable democracy without dissent! », assures for his part the senator from Côte-d’Or Alain Houpert, who chose to sponsor Éric Zemmour in the last presidential election.
Note that many senators contacted by Public Senate, on the right and left but also in the Macronist ranks, did not hide their embarrassment and preferred not to comment on the death of the former president of the National Front.
