French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has died at the age of 96.
Le Pen, who had been in a care home for several weeks, died at noon on Tuesday “surrounded by her loved ones,” her family announced.
Le Pen, who repeatedly downplayed the Holocaust and was an unrepentant extremist on issues of race, gender and immigration, founded France’s far-right party, the Front National, in 1972.
He faced Jacques Chirac in the 2002 presidential election.
Le Pen’s daughter Marine became party leader in 2011. She then rebranded the party as Rally National, turning it into one of France’s main political forces.
According to French media, she had just arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and was about to fly back to France when she heard the news.
Jourdan Bardera, who succeeded Marine Le Pen as party president in 2022, said Jean-Marie had “always served France” and “protected French identity and sovereignty.”
French President Emmanuel Macron described Le Pen as a “historic figure of the far right”, adding that “history will judge” her role in the country’s political life.
Far-right nationalist Eric Zemmour told X that Le Pen would be remembered “beyond the controversies and scandals” as “one of the first to warn France of a lurking existential threat”.
At the other end of the political spectrum, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical leftist France Inboud (LFI), said that respecting the dignity of the dead and the grief of the bereaved “nullifies the right to judge the actions of the dead.” It’s not a thing,” he said. I can’t stand Jean-Marie Le Pen’s guys.
“The fight against this man is over. The fight against the hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism he spread continues.”
For decades, Le Pen was France’s most controversial politician. His critics denounced him as a far-right bigot, and courts repeatedly convicted him for his extremist statements.
In an infamous 1987 interview, he sharply downplayed the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany. “I’m not saying gas chambers didn’t exist. I’ve never seen a gas chamber firsthand,” he said in an interview. “I have not studied this issue specifically, but I believe these are detailed points in the history of World War II.”
France has strict laws against Holocaust denial, and Le Pen was found guilty of contesting crimes against humanity and fined 30,000 euros ($31,180, 24,875 pounds).
The former National Front chief said the Nazi occupation of France was “not particularly inhumane” and was convicted of similar charges in 2012.
Still, Le Pen’s fiercely anti-immigration policies appealed to voters. In the 1988 presidential election, he received 14% of the vote. This number rose to 15% in 1995, and in 2002 Le Pen made it to the final presidential election.
But various political parties called on their supporters to vote against him, and his opponent, Mr. Chirac, won with 82%.
In 2015, Le Pen was expelled from a national assembly after she reiterated her characterization of the Holocaust as a “minor detail.”
The dismissal also came amid a public feud with his daughter, who claimed her comments about the Holocaust were “political suicide.”
“Perhaps she wanted to make some kind of gesture to the establishment by excluding me,” Le Pen later told the BBC’s Hugh Schofield.
