French far-right founder Jean-Marie Le Pen dies at 96

PARIS — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front and known for his fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, has died. He is 96 years old.

Le Pen is a polarizing figure in French politics, and his controversial rhetoric, including Holocaust denial, has led to multiple convictions and strained his political alliances.

Le Pen, who reached the second round of the 2002 presidential election, eventually became estranged from her daughter Marine Le Pen, who renamed her party the National Front, kicked it out and transformed it into France's most powerful party. one of the largest political forces while distancing itself. An extremist image from her father.

National Rally president Jordan Bardella confirmed Le Pen's death in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday. Bardella's unusually warm tribute highlighted Le Pen's controversial past, including his ties to the Algerian war, calling him “a tribune of the people” who “always served France” and paying tribute to a group of leaders including Marin. His family expressed condolences.

The post appeared to blur the distance the rebranded party is trying to create between its firebrand founder and the more polished, modern direction it has taken under Marine Le Pen.

Read more: Le Pen's power

Marine Le Pen was thousands of kilometers away on the French island of Mayotte, inspecting the aftermath of destructive Cyclone Chito when her father died.

Although Le Pen was expelled from the party in 2015, his divisive legacy remains, leaving a mark on French political history for decades and shaping the trajectory of the far right.

His death came at a critical time for his daughter. If convicted in her ongoing corruption trial, she now faces a possible jail term and a ban from running for political office.

The fiery Jean-Marie Le Pen has been a fixture in French politics for decades, a cunning political strategist and talented orator who uses his charisma to appeal to people with an anti-immigration message.

The portly, silver-haired son of a Breton fisherman saw himself as a man on a mission – to keep France under the banner of the National Front. Le Pen, who chose Joan of Arc as the party's patron saint, has made Islam and Muslim immigrants his top targets, blaming them for France's economic and social woes.

A former paratrooper and Foreign Legionnaire who fought in Indochina and Algeria, he led sympathizers into political and ideological battles with panache that became a hallmark of his career.

“If I advance, follow me; if I die, avenge me; if I escape, kill me,” Le Pen said at the party congress in 1990, reflecting the decades-long drive to inspire followers Passionate dramatic style.

Le Pen, who lost an eye in a street fight as a young man and wore a black eyepatch for years, is a continuing force in French political life that neither politicians on the left or right can ignore.

In election after election, he has proven himself to be a spoiler, forcing rivals to scramble against him and sometimes stooping to capture far-right votes.

Le Pen, who has been repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism and frequently accused of xenophobia and racism, often retorts that he is simply a patriot protecting the identity of “eternal France.”

Le Pen was recently exempted on health grounds from a high-profile trial due to begin in September over her party's alleged misappropriation of European Parliament funds.

According to French media reports, French judicial authorities placed Le Pen under legal custody at the request of his family in February as his health deteriorated. His health had been failing for some time.

Le Pen was convicted in 1990 for comments she made on radio three years earlier, when he called Nazi gas chambers “a detail in the history of World War II.” In 2015, he repeated the phrase, saying he regretted “not at all”, sparking outrage from his daughter, then party leader, and a second conviction in 2016.

He was also convicted of comments in 1988 linking a cabinet minister to Nazi crematoriums, and comments in 1989 accusing the Jewish International of helping sow “this anti-national spirit”.

In another setback, Le Pen lost her European Parliament seat for a year in 2002 for an attack on a Socialist politician during the 1997 election campaign.

Most recently, Le Pen and 26 National Front officials, including his daughters Marine Le Pen and Yann Le Pen, were accused of using funds intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay for the 2004 The salaries of staff who worked politically for the party between 2016 and 2016 were in violation of the National Front Act. G27 regulations. Jean-Marie Le Pen was deemed unfit to testify.

___

Ganley, who retired from The Associated Press, contributed to this report.