Jean-Marie Le Pen: the death of a hate-monger

Over more than five decades, this potent political movement, controlled since 2011 by his daughter Marine Le Pen, has pushed the boundaries of French – and European – political discourse, normalising far-right extremism through promoting fear and hate of “the other”.

Le Pen’s notoriety stemmed from his vile rhetoric and unapologetic bigotry. He infamously referred to the Holocaust as a mere “detail” of history, the Nazi Occupation as “not that inhumane” and dismissed Nazi gas chambers as a “point of debate.” His anti-Semitism was persistent and dangerous. In September 2024, he was even filmed at his home  singing with a neo-Nazi group.

But Le Pen’s brand of hate was not limited to words. His political rise coincided with accusations of direct involvement in atrocities during the Algerian War. Allegations of torture against him cast a long shadow over his career. Though he denied the charges, they underscored the brutal reality of his ideology: a politics rooted in violence, domination, and the suppression of dissent.

Born in Brittany, the son of a seamstress and a fisherman, in 1956 Le Pen became France’s youngest MP, but he remained fixated on the battlefields of Indochina and Algeria. His resentment over France’s diminishing colonial reach fueled his animosity toward Charles de Gaulle, whom he accused of betraying the French settlers of Algeria.

The early years of the Front National were turbulent, marked by violent confrontations and overt racism, which revived memories of the Vichy regime. In 1976, a bomb exploded in his Paris apartment building, injuring six people but sparing Le Pen and his family. His personal life was equally dramatic – his wife, Pierrette, left him in 1984 and in a provocative response to his patriarchal views she later posed for Playboy.

Le Pen’s anti-Semitic and racist speech earned him legal penalties and solidified his reputation as the “Devil of the Republic”. He likened Muslims praying in public to a Nazi occupation and made grotesque remarks about gas chambers in reference to Jewish figures.

His slogan, “One million unemployed, one million immigrants too many,” epitomised the xenophobia that defined his career. By the 1980s François Mitterrand’s cynical decision to amplify Le Pen’s media presence legitimised him. The National Front became a formidable force, capitalising on working-class discontent and exploiting fears about immigration, the European Union and globalisation.

The 2002 presidential election was Le Pen’s crowning achievement. By ousting Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the first round, he forced a runoff against Jacques Chirac. Millions of French citizens rallied to block his path to power, giving the Gaullist right candidate Chirac an overwhelming victory. Yet the damage was done. The shock of Le Pen’s success revealed deep fractures in French society and marked the beginning of the far right’s inexorable creep towards greater power.

Le Pen railed against the EU but profited for decades from its taxpayers as an MEP. His legacy lives on through his daughter Marine, who has rebranded the Front National – now the Rassemblement National or National Rally – to broaden its appeal. While Marine has attempted to distance the party from its overtly racist past, her rhetoric and policies remain grounded in her father’s ideology. 

Critics like journalist Caroline Fourest, the editorial director of Franc-Tireur have noted that Marine’s efforts at de-demonisation are merely a strategic facade. The core of Le Penism – nationalistic, anti-immigrant, scapegoating and enamoured of dictators like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad – remains intact.

Le Pen father and daughter’s uneasy alliance ended dramatically in 2015 when Marine expelled her father from the party after yet another anti-Semitic outburst. The decision in 2018 to rename the party completed a symbolic break from her father’s toxic legacy. 

Marine brought her father’s movement within striking distance of power, advancing to the second round in both the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections. 

In 2017, she faced Emmanuel Macron in the runoff, garnering 33.9% of the vote. In 2022, she again reached the second round, this time securing 41.5% against Macron, a reflection of how her party has steadily and alarmingly gained ground in French politics.

The timing of Le Pen’s death is a cruel irony. It coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, a moment when France came together to defend free speech and secularism. Le Pen’s response to that tragedy was as appalling as it was revealing. He mocked the national unity that followed the attacks, deriding the marchers and declaring he was not Charlie – but more “Charlie Martel”, in reference to the 8th century Frankish Duke Charles Martel who fought off invading Muslims. 

He stood against everything that the victims of Charlie represented: courage, creativity, and resistance to extremism – and his impact extended far beyond France. His rise inspired a generation of far-right leaders across Europe, from Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to Italy’s Matteo Salvini. 

Le Pen proved that hate could be repackaged as populism, that fear could be weaponised to erode democratic values. His death at 96 marks the end of a life dedicated to undermining the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.