PARIS — French far-right chief Marine Le Pen paid tribute Wednesday to her father Jean-Marie, the founding father of the Nationwide Entrance celebration who died at 96, calling him a “warrior” in politics regardless of their notoriously harsh political disputes.
Le Pen posted on social media platform X: “A venerable age had taken the warrior away however given us again our father,” suggesting she was in a position to reconcile with him.
Jean-Marie, who has three daughters together with Marine, the youngest, was a polarizing determine, convicted a number of instances of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.
“Many individuals he liked are ready for him up there. Many who love him mourn him right here under,” Le Pen wrote. “Honest winds and following seas, Papa (Dad)!”
His demise was introduced on Tuesday when Le Pen was on her means again from the French territory of Mayotte, within the Indian Ocean, which was hit by a devastating cyclone in December.
1000’s of demonstrators gathered on the Republic Plaza in Paris on Tuesday night, to have a good time the demise of the far-right politician. The group might be seen dancing and chanting: “Completely satisfied New 12 months, Jean-Marie is useless.”
Comparable gatherings came about in different French cities, together with Lyon and Marseille.
French anti-racist group SOS Racisme stated Le Pen spent his life selling the far proper by “racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and Holocaust denial.” The group additionally paid tribute in a press release to “generations of activists who’ve given their time, youth and power to battle the Nationwide Entrance and its concepts.”
In an interview in 1987, Jean-Marie referred to the Nazi gasoline chambers as a “element in World Battle II historical past.”
He repeated the comment in 2015, saying he “did by no means” remorse it, triggering the ire of his daughter, by then the celebration chief, looking for to distance herself from her father’s extremist picture. That yr, he was kicked out of the celebration, later renamed the Nationwide Rally, as a part of the youthful Le Pen’s efforts to rework it into one among France’s strongest political forces.
Jean-Marie’s funeral will happen on Saturday in his delivery city of La Trinite-sur-Mer, within the western Brittany area.
