Jean-Marie Le Pen – founder of the French far-right party has passed away

Mr. Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the French far-right movement, passed away today (January 7), according to AFP citing a statement from his family.

Mr. Le Pen has been at home recuperating for the past few weeks, before passing away at 6:00 p.m. on January 7 (Vietnam time) in the arms of relatives, at the age of 97.

Father of the French far-right party

In 1972, Mr. Le Pen founded the National Front (FN) party with the goal of unifying France’s far-right movements.

During the past few decades, Mr. Le Pen has always been the most controversial political figure in France, nicknamed “The Devil of the Republic”.

For his supporters, he has strong charisma, a champion who never backs down in the face of all obstacles and is willing to fight the most difficult topics in French politics.

According to critics, he is considered a far-right bigot and has been convicted by courts many times for extremely extremist comments.

In 2002, Mr. Le Pen shocked France when he entered the second round of the presidential election. That year, France breathed a sigh of relief when the final victory went to candidate Jacques Chirac.

The father-son relationship is broken

In 2011, he resigned as FN president and transferred power to his daughter, Marine Le Pen.

The relationship between Le Pen father and son was divided almost immediately. Ms. Marine Le Pen leads the FN away from her father’s extreme policies, in order to attract more voters.

And this relationship is almost impossible to mend after the FN in May 2015 unanimously decided to suspend the party membership of Honorary President Jean-Marie Le Pen, according to the newspaper. Le Monde.

This is a form of discipline for Mr. Le Pen after a number of statements that could have a negative impact on FN’s efforts to improve its image, such as commenting that gas chambers during World War 2 were just a “detail” of history. history.

The above decision shows that FN’s internal crisis has reached its peak, and the relationship between Mr. Le Pen and his daughter – FN President Marine Le Pen – has seriously broken.

After his membership was suspended, Mr. Le Pen became very angry and said he had been “betrayed” and wanted his daughter to change her last name.

Two years later, Ms. Marine Le Pen changed the name of FN to Rassemblement National.

By last year, the RN won 30 out of 81 seats in the European Parliament for France and became the party that won the most seats in the following general election in France despite not taking power.