Prime Minister François Bayrou salutes “a figure of French political life”

“We knew, fighting him, what a fighter he was.” Prime Minister François Bayrou welcomed the departure of“a figure of French political life”after the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, Tuesday January 7 at the age of 96, announced by his family to AFP. “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”writes the Prime Minister on X. Follow the reactions in our live stream.

He has “always served France”, writes the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella. “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”declared on X Jordan Bardella, president of his party now called National Rally. The far-right leader “thinking today with sadness of his family, his loved ones, and of course Marine [Le Pen] whose mourning must be respected”.

Marine Le Pen learned of her father’s death on the plane. The president of the RN group in the National Assembly was informed of this by the media while she was making a stopover in Kenya, during the flight which brought her back from a visit to Mayotte, according to a franceinfo journalist on site.

Left-wing figures denounce “the hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that he spread”. “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”writes Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X. “All the RN pay tribute to the repeat offender Le Pen convicted for advocating war crimes and contesting crimes against humanity, for provoking hatred, discrimination and racial violence, for violence”recalls LFI deputy Paul Vannier on X.

The National Rally salutes “a child of the people (…) visionary”. “He will remain the one who, in the storms, held in his hands the little flickering flame of the French Nation and who (…) made the national movement an autonomous, powerful and free political family”greets in a press release the party he founded under the name of National Front.

The central figure of the modern French far right. From his first mandate, in 1956, until his last breath, Jean-Marie Le Pen had a profound impact on political life, to the rhythm of provocations, scandals and coups, but also historic electoral breakthroughs.