Jean-Marie Le Pen, who established France’s National Front party and was the father of Marine Le Pen, died at the age of 96, leading French conservatives to reflect on his influence.
He died in an assisted living facility, with his family stating he was surrounded by loved ones.
Marine Le Pen, currently abroad, expressed her sorrow on social media with a childhood photo of herself with her father.
Political leaders, including President Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged Le Pen’s long-standing role in French politics, while also noting the controversies surrounding his legacy.
Marine Le Pen distanced herself from her father’s views in 2015, aiming to reshape the party ahead of her own presidential ambitions.
“You will not be able to console me for this sorrow,” the French leader wrote on X.
“Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead. Enlisted in the uniform of the French army in Indochina and Algeria, orator in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he always served France, defended its identity and its sovereignty. Today my thoughts are with his family, his loved ones, and of course of (his daughter) Marine whose mourning must be respected,” Jordan Bardella, chair of the National Party, told Reuters.
The party wrote, “For the National Rally, he will remain the one who, during the storms, held in his hands the small flickering flame of the French Nation and who, through an unlimited will and tenacity, made the national movement an autonomous, powerful and free political family.”
French President Emmanuel Macron stated simply, “A historic figure of the far right, he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly seventy years, which is now a matter for history to judge.”
