PARIS – Over 1,000 folks attended a memorial ceremony Thursday in central Paris for the founding father of France’s fundamental far-right get together, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last week on the age of 96.
The “mass for the repose of the soul” at Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church came about underneath tight safety, as Le Pen was a polarizing figure, convicted a number of occasions of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.
Relations, together with his daughter Marine Le Pen, now the main far-right determine in France, different Nationwide Rally get together officers and longstanding supporters gathered contained in the church. The broader public was allowed to comply with the ceremony through large screens exterior.
A personal funeral came about final week in Le Pen’s hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany.
Jean-Marie had three daughters, together with Marine, the youngest. She remodeled her father’s Nationwide Entrance within the 2010s, renamed it the Nationwide Rally, and made it one in all France’s strongest political forces. She is now eyeing the 2027 presidential election.
Crowds applauded Le Pen’s members of the family as they got here out of the church on the finish of the mass.
Amongst these on the ceremony was Eric Zemmour, a controversial discuss present pundit with views to the right of the far-right who competed in opposition to Marine Le Pen on the final presidential election, in 2022. Zemmour was convicted multiple times of inciting racist or religious hatred.
Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, now a member of the European Parliament who as soon as joined forces with Zemmour earlier than launching her personal far-right get together final 12 months, was additionally current.
Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, a French comic repeatedly convicted of inciting antisemitism or racial hatred, attended exterior the church. He stated on social media a courtroom allowed him to go. The comic has been underneath home arrest since Could, tagged with an digital bracelet.
Quite a few cops had been deployed Thursday across the church as authorities sought to keep away from any safety incident.
Final week, the loss of life of the far-right politician pushed 1000’s of demonstrators onto the Place de la République in Paris to have a good time the information. The group might be seen dancing and chanting: “Blissful New Yr, Jean-Marie is lifeless.” Comparable gatherings came about in different French cities, together with Lyon and Marseille.
Anti-racism group SOS Racisme paid tribute to “generations of activists who’ve given their time, youth and vitality to combat the Nationwide Entrance and its concepts.”
In an interview in 1987, Jean-Marie Le Pen referred to the Nazi fuel chambers as a “element in World Conflict II historical past.”
He repeated the comment in 2015, saying he “did under no circumstances” remorse it, triggering the ire of his daughter, by then the get together chief. She was looking for to distance herself from her father’s extremist picture, and that 12 months he was kicked out of the get together.
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