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French National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen dies aged 96

 

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s National Front (FN) party, has died.

He was aged 96.

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The former FN leader had been ill for some time with heart problems.

His family was with him when he died.

Le Pen caused a seismic shock among the French political establishment when he reached the presidential election run-off vote against Jacques Chirac in 2002.

Le Pen lost, but his party continued momentum to play a leading role in French politics.

Le Pen, who led the party from 1972 to 2011 courted, controversy with his far-right views.

He described the Holocaust as “a mere detail” in the history of the Second World War.

And he praised the French Vichy government that collaborated with the country’s Nazi occupiers.

Throughout his political career he was unrepentant with his views on race, gender and migration.

He was succeeded as the FN leader by his daughter, Marine Pen.

She too ran for the presidency, losing all three times.

The party – now rebranded as the National Rally – remains to be a dominant powerhouse in French politics.

 

 

 

 

 

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