Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of French far-right, dead at 96

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right French politician who founded the Front National and led it for almost four decades, died on Tuesday at the age of 96.

Le Pen was succeeded as leader of the nationalist party in 2011 by his daughter, Marine. Four years later she expelled him for being too extreme, and rebranded the party as the Rassemblement National.

In 1999, a German court convicted him of minimising the Holocaust, having in 1987 dismissed the use of gas chambers as "a detail" in the history of World War Two. He was later convicted in France of incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence for comments he made about Muslims.

The far-right leader was also accused of torture during his time as a French army officer in the Algerian war of 1954-1962.

Le Pen's obstinance earned him the nickname of "The Menhir" in France, a reference to ancient standing stones built by Celtic cultures – including in the French region of Brittany, where he was from.

AFP first reported Le Pen had died on Tuesday, citing a statement from his family.

"A kind of UFO" in Brussels

Before facing Jacques Chirac in the second round of the 2002 presidential election, Le Pen built the foundations of his political career in the European Parliament. In 1984's European elections, the Front National achieved 11% of the vote, enabling the party to send ten MEPs to Strasbourg for the first time. Le Pen would remain an MEP for almost 35 years, with some interruptions, until 2019.

Still marginalised in France in the 1980s, the far-right party – founded in 1972 by former Waffen-SS members, neo-Nazi sympathisers, and nostalgic supporters of French Algeria –took advantage of the powerful platform provided by the European institutions its broaden its electoral base.

From the parliamentary rostrum, Le Pen frequently launched attacks and insults. Accused of antisemitism by a German socialist in September 1988, the National Front leader retorted that his accsuser "is a pro-Arab paedophile with sadistic tendencies.”

“For European parliamentarians, Jean-Marie Le Pen was long seen as a kind of UFO, a nationalist from the early 20th century who occasionally shouted in the corridors,” remarked sociologist Erwann Lecoeur, a specialist in the far right.

“He was rarely present in Strasbourg, never worked on any projects, didn’t understand English, and refused to speak it. He merely used European institutions to keep his party alive.”

Unable to make electoral gains in France due to the majority voting system, the Front National's successes on the European stage in the 1980s enabled to establish a cadre of professional politicians and secure financial resources.

In his early years in Strasbourg, Le Pen was far from a critic of what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC). He supported a "Europe of nations" and the defence of "European civilisation" against the Soviet threat.

As Libération points out, Le Pen even advocated in his first presidential manifesto in 1974, for the “Europeanisation of armed forces,” writing that “the Soviet threat makes isolated French defence unrealistic and an unconvincing disparate coalition.”

The ideological shift of the far-right leader occurred with France's referendum on the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union and the political integration of its member states.

On the evening of the results in 1992, he declared that the “proponents of the foreign party” had won. From then on, he consistently criticised the “European contraption,” attacking Brussels’ bureaucracy for allegedly seeking to “destroy the nations” of the continent.

Le Pen’s time in the European Parliament was also marked by numerous financial scandals. Indicted in the parliamentary assistants’ case alongside his daughter Marine – whose verdict is expected on 31 March – he was also accused by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of misusing €300,000 in parliamentary funds between 2009 and 2018.

“An historic figure of the far right, he... played a role in our country’s public life for nearly seventy years, a role that now falls under the judgment of history,” stated the Élysée in a communiqué, noting that President Macron extended “his condolences to his family and loved ones.”

Le Pen is survived by his three daughters, Marine, Marie-Caroline and Yann, and his second wife Jany.

[Edited by Owen Morgan]