The founder of the right-wing extremist Front National in France, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is dead. This is reported by several media outlets such as Le Figaro citing his family. He was 96 years old.
The Front National was led by Jean-Marie Le Pen for decades until his daughter Marine succeeded him in 2011. The two fell out ten years ago. The party is now called Rassemblement National.
Le Pen’s political career began after his time as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion. Among other things, he took part in an operation against the Algerian independence movement and, according to a later court ruling, was also involved in torture. He founded the National Front in 1972 and his political rise began in the late 1980s.
Le Pen repeatedly ran in presidential elections in France and surprisingly made it to the runoff in 2002, where he was clearly defeated by Jacques Chirac. The nationalist was also a member of the European Parliament for many years.
Marine Le Pen reorganized the party and called on her Holocaust-denying father to leave. In 2015, Jean-Marie Le Pen was expelled from the party for serious misconduct. The Front National was renamed in 2018 and has been led by Jordan Bardella since the end of 2022.
#France #Front #National #cofounder #JeanMarie #Pen #dead
