the funeral of the founder of the National Front was held in his hometown of Morbihan

His family, including Marine Le Pen, and his loved ones gathered on Saturday afternoon at Trinité-sur-Mer, before another ceremony which will be held on Thursday in Paris.

The family and some close friends of Jean-Marie Le Pen were gathered for his funeral. The funeral of the founder of the National Front, who died Tuesday at the age of 96, was held on Saturday January 11 in the afternoon in the church of his hometown of Trinité-sur-Mer (Morbihan). Marine Le Pen and one of her two sisters, Marie-Caroline, walked the several hundred meters between the family home and the small Saint-Joseph church, in front of a small crowd of curious people and several dozen journalists.

Former MP and former right-hand man of Jean-Marie Le Pen, Bruno Gollnisch, was one of the guests. A large force of law enforcement was deployed. In total, around 200 people took their places inside the church for this ceremony. The former leader of the French far right, condemned several times in particular for his statements on the Second World War and for homophobic insults, was then buried in the vault in which his parents rest, in the cemetery located a few hundreds of meters from the church.

Another ceremony, “religious and homage”will take place Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Notre-Dame-du Val-de-Grâce church in Paris, attached to the diocese of the French Armies. This mass, decided by Marine Le Pen and her sisters Marie-Caroline and Yann, will be open to the public. The event should remain conducive to meditation, said Louis Aliot, vice-president of the National Rally, while on Tuesday evening, gatherings were held in certain cities in France, including Paris, Lyon and Rennes, to celebrate, with songs, smoke bombs and fireworks, the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The prefect of Morbihan, for his part, issued an order on Friday prohibiting demonstrations in the town, given that “the political figure 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”.