Jean-Marie Le Pen

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founding father of France’s modern political far-right who built a half-century career on rants of barely disguised racism, antisemitism and neo-Nazi propaganda, died on Tuesday January 7 2025 in Garches, west of Paris. He was 96. Le Pen ran unsuccessfully for the French presidency five times, making it to a runoff in 2002. Le Pen’s youngest daughter, Marine Le Pen, succeeded him as leader of the National Front in 2011 and rose to prominence on a tide of populist anger at the political mainstream. She was defeated in France’s presidential elections three times. But the party, renamed National Rally, sent a record number of representatives to the lower house of Parliament — 89 in all — testimony to the success of Ms. Le Pen’s efforts to normalize it and moderate its message in some regards. Jean-Marie Le Pen was born on June 20, 1928, in La Trinité-sur-Mer, a seaside village in Brittany. Le Pen earned a law degree at the University of Paris, In 1960, he married Pierrette Lalanne. Besides Marine, they had two other daughters, Marie-Caroline and Yann, and were divorced in 1987. In 1991, he married Jeanne-Marie Paschos.