As a Holocaust denier and founder of France's far-right National Front, he was one of its most controversial political figures.
Yesterday, Jean-Marie Le Pen, considered by some to be the pioneer of the populist politics now sweeping the world, died at the age of 96, “surrounded by his loved ones.”
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The controversial politician had described the Holocaust as mere “historical details” and spoke of “inequality between races.”
However, he rocked the French political establishment when voters chose him to run in an unsuccessful presidential runoff against Jacques Chirac in 2002.
His daughter, Marine Le Pen, took over the party's leadership in 2011 and renamed it the more moderate National Rally.
Wife's revenge
Eventually, father and daughter disagreed over his extreme views while trying to make the party electable.
In 2015, Le Pen Sr. was suspended and stripped of his title as president. The relationship never recovered.
President Macron took a diplomatic line over Jean-Marie's death. A message issued by the Elysee Palace stated that he is “a historical figure of the extreme right, and he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly 70 years, and he is now a matter of concern to us.” date To judge.”
Le Pen's political career has been controversial, but his personal life has been equally stormy.
When he divorced Berette LaLanne – the mother of his three children – in 1987, she posed naked with a vacuum cleaner for Playboy magazine, in retaliation for Le Pen's view that a woman's place was in the home.
Le Pen, the son of a fisherman and a clothing manufacturer, was born into humble circumstances in La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany in 1928.
He read law in Paris and then served in Algeria during the War of Independence.
He was later accused of torturing prisoners. Le Monde newspaper found four of his alleged victims, but he denied any involvement.
Le Pen became a deputy in the French National Assembly when he was 28, but after losing his seat in 1962 he founded a right-wing publishing company.
When he released an album containing Nazi songs, he was prosecuted and fined in 1968.
In 1972, Le Pen founded the National Front, whose ranks included neo-Nazis. He received little support and in 1976 his apartment was bombed.
In 1987, he was fined for describing Nazi gas chambers as “a detail in the history of World War II.”
His party's fortunes changed when unemployment rates rose after the election of socialist François Mitterrand as president in 1981.
Le Pen blamed immigrants for taking jobs and his popularity soared. The Front won 35 seats in the National Assembly.
In 1987 he was fined for describing Nazism gas Rooms as “a detail in the history of World War II”.
But in 2002, Le Pen's anti-immigrant rhetoric found support when he faced Chirac for the presidency.
Failing to do so, he passed leadership of his party to his daughter in 2011. When Le Pen again dismissed the Holocaust as trivial, he was expelled from the party.
Le Pen started a new political movement, but his time was up. An era of populism soon began to emerge, where his anti-elite views may have proven successful.
