Former paratrooper led National Front party for decades and courted controversy, being repeatedly fined for contesting crimes against humanity

Summary

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right National Rally (formerly National Front), has died.

A former paratrooper, he led the party from 1972 to 2011 and was known for inflammatory rhetoric, including Holocaust denial and praise for the Nazi-collaborating Vichy regime, which led to multiple convictions.

He ran for president five times, shocking France in 2002 by advancing to the runoff against Jacques Chirac.

A divisive figure, he was expelled from the party by his daughter, Marine Le Pen, in 2015 as she sought to moderate its image.

  • DicJacobus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    45·
    2 days ago

    I celebrate the passing of fascists,

    German Fascists, Russian Fascists, American Fascists, French Fascists. you are all the same.

    Au revoir, Shoshanna. Rest in piss. Traitor