France | Start of the funeral of Jean-Marie Le Pen

(La Trinité-sur-Mer) The funeral of the figure of the French extreme right, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died at the age of 96, began early Saturday afternoon in his hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer. -Sea, in the west of the country, in the presence of his family and a few close friends.

His daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over the reins of the party co-founded by her father, the National Front (FN) which has since become the National Rally (RN), and one of her two sisters, Marie-Caroline, followed by several members of their family, walked the few hundred meters between the family home and the small Saint-Joseph church, under a blue sky, in front of a small crowd of curious people and several dozen journalists.

Around 200 people were to take their place inside the church for this ceremony which was to last 1 hour 30 minutes, while a large police force was deployed to avoid any incident in the town of around 1,700 people.

Tuesday evening, several hundred opponents gathered in several cities in France, including Paris, Lyon and Rennes, to celebrate, with songs, smoke bombs and fireworks, the death of “JMLP”. “This dirty racist is dead,” said a sign held up in Paris.

These demonstrations were strongly condemned by the RN, which vilified “the bitch, always the same, in the street, the leftist scum”, and the French government. “Dead, even the enemy has the right to respect,” said the executive spokesperson.

Ban on demonstrating

On Friday, the prefect issued an order prohibiting demonstrations in the town, given that “the political personality of the deceased” was “likely to attract, on the sidelines of the religious ceremony and the burial, a large crowd composed of both sympathizers but also possibly opponents.”

Jean-Marie Le Pen must be buried in the vault where his parents rest.

“I came as a curious person, to pay tribute to a man who served France and who loved France,” Johann, 40, who lives not far away, in Auray, explained to AFP.

“We came to pay tribute to a great man who had the courage to say things,” says Ludovic, 43. “He was a visionary. He loved France and its people and they had values ​​that are being lost, like love of the nation.”

A provocative and sulphurous tribune, obsessed with immigration and Jews, Mr. Le Pen shocked the political class and a large part of French public opinion on April 21, 2002 by reaching the second round of the presidential election behind the outgoing Jacques Chirac. , who will ultimately be re-elected with more than 82% of the votes thanks to a “republican front”.

Engaged in Indochina, Mr. Le Pen had also fought in Algeria. He admitted in 2019 to a journalist having practiced torture in Algeria, without using the word, according to statements published by the newspaper The World in its Sunday-Monday edition.

The man who liked to be nicknamed “the Menhir” died Tuesday in the Paris region, in an establishment where he had been admitted several weeks ago.

Another ceremony, “religious and of homage”, will take place on January 16 at the Notre-Dame-du Val-de-Grâce church in Paris. It will be open to the public.