Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right politician who founded France's National Front party, has died at the age of 96, according to local reports.
Le Pen remained in a care center “for several weeks” and died today “surrounded by his loved ones,” the BBC reported, citing his family.
Born in 1928, he became one of France's most divisive and influential political figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Le Pen tried to become president of France five times. He reached a run-off against incumbent President Jacques Chirac in 2002, but suffered a crushing defeat.
Le Pen founded the National Front, now known as the National Rally, in 1972 and led the party until his resignation in 2011. He was succeeded by his daughter, Marine Le Pen, and has also tried to run for president several times since then and has turned the party around. To one of the most influential in France.
Le Pen Sr. was known for his bold, charismatic speeches and his provocative and controversial views on immigration, the European Union, culture, traditions and religion, especially on religions such as Islam and Judaism. He was fined for describing the gas chambers used by the Nazis to kill Jews during World War II as a “detail” in history, and was a known Holocaust denier.
He angered many in Hollywood in 2012 when he criticized the French film by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. The outcastslikening progressive, multicultural France to the disabled main character, played by François Cluzet. The film follows the story of a wealthy, physically disabled risk-taker and recent widow, whose world is turned upside down when he hires a young, good-humored black Muslim ex-con, played by Omar Sy, to be his caretaker.
Le Pen fell out with his daughter after she took over the leadership of the National Front and tried to improve the image of the far-right party, but he remained honorary president until 2015 when he was eventually expelled. Despite his views and reputation among his opponents as the “Devil of the Republic”, his brand of nationalism and populism won him many supporters. Many consider him a predecessor of today's right-wing leaders such as Donald Trump.
