‘It’s up to History to judge’, says Macron after Jean-Marie Le Pen’s death

Jean-Marie Le Pen was a presidential candidate five times. In 2002, he reached the second round, being defeated by an overwhelming majority by Jacques Chirac.

In 1972, he took over the leadership of a new party that brought together neo-fascists: the National Front. He was succeeded as head of the party by his daughter, Marine Le Pen, who has since run for president three times and transformed the party, now called National Rally, into one of the country’s leading political forces.

Jean-Marie made the caption become a family story. Just over four decades after the party’s creation, he placed his daughters, sons-in-law and, in 2012, a granddaughter, Marion Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, in party leadership positions. He remained honorary president until March 2018.

Controversial positions

Racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic statements marked Le Pen’s political activities. An ultra-rightist, he frequently made verbal attacks against black people, Jews and foreigners, especially Arabs. In one case, he declared that the gas chambers were ”a detail in the history of the Second World War”.

He condemned France’s participation in the European Union. In one of the electoral races for president, he declared himself as France’s candidate against Euroglobalization and promised to withdraw the country from the Maastricht treaty, which founded the European Union in 1991.