PARIS (AP) 鈥 Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France鈥檚 far-right 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, died Tuesday. He was 96.
A polarizing figure in , Le Pen was convicted numerous times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence. Yet, despite those convictions and his eventual political estrangement, the nativist ideas that propelled his decades of popularity 鈥攅ncapsulated in slogans like 鈥淔rench People First鈥 鈥 remain ascendant in today鈥檚 France, across Europe and beyond.
His statements 鈥 including Holocaust denial, racist denunciations of Muslims and immigrants, and his 1987 proposal to forcibly isolate people with AIDS in special facilities 鈥 shocked his critics and strained his political alliances. Le Pen routinely countered that he was simply a patriot protecting the identity of 鈥渆ternal France.鈥
Le Pen, who reached the second round of the 2002 presidential election, was eventually estranged from his daughter, Marine Le Pen, who renamed his 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front party, kicked him out and transformed it into one of France鈥檚 while distancing herself from her father鈥檚 extremist image.
Jordan Bardella, president of the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Rally as the party is now known, confirmed Le Pen鈥檚 death in a post on social media platform X. Bardella鈥檚 unusually warm tribute described Le Pen as a 鈥渢ribune of the people鈥 who 鈥渁lways served France鈥 and expressing condolences to his family.
The post appeared to blur the distance the rebranded party had sought to establish between its firebrand founder and its more polished, modern direction under Marine Le Pen.
French President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, expressed 鈥渉is condolences to (Le Pen's) family and friends,鈥 in an uncharacteristically short statement issued by the presidential palace.
鈥淎 historic figure of the far right, he played a role in the public life of our country for almost 70 years, which is now a matter for history to judge,鈥 the statement read.
Marine Le Pen, thousands of kilometers (miles) away in the French territory of Mayotte, was inspecting the aftermath of destructive Cyclone Chido at the time of her father鈥檚 death.
His death came at a crucial time for his daughter. She now faces a potential prison term and a ban on running for political office if convicted in .
A former paratrooper and Foreign Legionnaire who fought in Indochina and Algeria, the fiery Jean-Marie Le Pen was a wily political strategist and gifted orator who used his charisma to captivate crowds with his anti-immigration message.
The portly, silver-haired son of a Breton fisherman viewed himself as a man with a mission 鈥 to keep France French under the banner of the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front. Picking Joan of Arc as the party鈥檚 patron saint, Le Pen made Islam, and Muslim immigrants, his primary target, blaming them for the economic and social woes of France.
鈥淚f I advance, follow me; if I die, avenge me; if I shirk, kill me,鈥 Le Pen said at a 1990 party congress, reflecting the theatrical style that for decades fed the fervor of followers.
Le Pen, who lost an eye in a street fight in his youth and for years wore a black eyepatch, was a constant force in French political life, impossible for politicians of the left or right to ignore. In election after election, he proved the spoiler, forcing rivals to scramble to counter him.
Today, the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Rally, the successor to the party he founded, has not only solidified its presence in French politics but also pushed Macron to the right on security and immigration, reflecting a broader shift in the political landscape.
Le Pen was notably convicted in 1990 for a radio remark made three years earlier in which he referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a 鈥渄etail in World War II history.鈥 In 2015, he repeated the remark, saying he 鈥渄id not at all鈥 regret it, triggering the ire of his daughter 鈥 by then the party leader 鈥 and a new conviction in 2016.
He also was convicted for a 1988 remark linking in a play on words a Cabinet minister with the Nazi crematory ovens, and for a 1989 comment blaming the 鈥淛ewish international鈥 for helping seed 鈥渢his anti-national spirit.鈥
In another setback, Le Pen lost his European Parliament seat in 2002 for a year for assaulting a Socialist politician during a 1997 election campaign.
More recently, Le Pen and 26 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front officials, including his daughters Marine and Yann Le Pen, have been accused of using money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc鈥檚 regulations. Jean-Marie Le Pen was deemed unfit to testify.
Le Pen had recently been exempted from prosecution on health grounds from a high-profile trial over his party鈥檚 suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds that opened in September.
French judicial authorities placed Le Pen under legal guardianship in February at the request of his family as his health declined, French media reported. He had been in frail health for some time.
Born June 20, 1928, in the Brittany village of Trinite-Sur-Mer, to Jean Le Pen, a fisherman who would die in World War II, and his wife Anne-Marie, Jean-Marie Le Pen proved an ambitious son attracted early on to the extreme right.
Armed with law and political science degrees, Le Pen made his way to Paris, and at 27 became the youngest lawmaker in the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Assembly under the banner of the Union for the Defense of Shopkeepers and Artisans, run by Pierre Poujade. His career never strayed from the far-right path.
In 1963, he and Leon Gaultier, who served in the Waffen SS, founded a company, SERP, that churned out political discourses. With the neo-fascist group New Order, Le Pen founded the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front on Oct. 5, 1972.
It would take more than a decade for the party to emerge as a political force 鈥 in a September 1983 municipal election when Jean-Pierre Stirbois won 16.7% of the votes in the town of Dreux, west of Paris.
A year later, the party won 11% in European parliamentary elections and seated 10 deputies. The message was clear: France could no longer ignore Le Pen. The party鈥檚 entry as a force in national politics came two years later in legislative elections that gave Le Pen鈥檚 party 35 seats in France鈥檚 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Assembly.
By then, Le Pen had replaced the black eyepatch and begun polishing his scrappy image.
In 1988, he startled the nation by taking 14% of the vote in the first round of presidential elections. Fourteen years later, in his fifth bid for the presidency, he outdid that 鈥 scoring 16.8%, coming second behind Jacques Chirac and reaching the two-man runoff.
France shuddered, Europe trembled and the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front gloated. But a Le Pen victory was not to be. In a rare joining of forces, supporters of the right and left poured into the streets of France in a massive show of solidarity against him. On May 5, 2002, Chirac was returned to office with a record 82% of the vote.
Throughout the years, Le Pen鈥檚 political line never wavered.
In a 2003 speech, he said he wanted the notion of 鈥渘ational preference鈥 written into the French Constitution to limit employment, housing opportunities and other social assistance to French citizens. Immigration is 鈥渢he greatest danger we鈥檙e facing,鈥 he said.
鈥淢e? Racist? It鈥檚 a gag, a gag,鈥 Le Pen once told The Associated Press. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 not for the melting pot. I鈥檓 for the defense of one鈥檚 culture. I鈥檇 despair if I found the culture of Brooklyn in France.鈥
His private life was tumultuous.
An explosion destroyed the family apartment building in 1976 but injured neither Le Pen nor his wife and three children.
The French media relished recounting Le Pen鈥檚 divorce saga from wife Pierrette Lalanne. In a reflection of that bitter separation, she famously posed for Playboy in 1987, partly dressed in a risque maid鈥檚 costume. The magazine quoted her as saying she was responding to her husband鈥檚 Playboy interview in which he said she could become a housekeeper if she needed money.
He married for a second time in 1991, to Jeanne-Marie Paschos, known as Jany.
Le Pen began laying the groundwork for his succession at a party congress in 2003, naming Marine 鈥 the youngest of his three daughters 鈥 to the post of vice president. In 2011, she became party president and in 2017 and 2022 reached the presidential runoff herself. Both times she lost to centrist Emmanuel Macron, but with a shrinking margin. She is considered a leading potential contender for the next presidential election in 2027.
But her and attempts to distance the party from the most extreme of his views soon brought her into conflict with her father. His refusal to desist from antisemitic provocations clashed with her bid to rid the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front of its pariah status.
She removed him from the party he co-founded, and in 2018 divested him of his title of honorary president-for-life. A few months later she changed the 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Front name to 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Rally as part of her strategy to renew the party鈥檚 image.
Her father called it the 鈥渢oughest blow鈥 the party had faced since its founding.
Throughout his life, Jean-Marie Le Pen refused to cede, or be silenced.
鈥淚鈥檓 a moral authority for the movement ... and I don鈥檛 have the habit of keeping my opinions to myself,鈥 Le Pen told The AP in 2014 as the father-daughter feud gained momentum.
As Le Pen鈥檚 health deteriorated in recent years, he was hospitalized several times, including after he suffered a stroke.
Le Pen is survived by his wife and three daughters, Marie-Caroline, Yann and Marine.
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Ganley, who retired from The Associated Press in 2024, contributed to this report.
