Jean-Marie Le Pen died at the age of 96 – RT in French

A major political figure of the Fifth Republic, five times presidential candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen died on January 7, 2025.

The “Menhir”, as he was nicknamed, died on January 7 at the age of 96, in Garches, in Hauts-de-Seine. “Jean-Marie Le Pen, surrounded by his family, was called back to God this Tuesday at 12 p.m.,” his family announced to a French press agency.

Historic founder of the National Front in 1972, Jean-Marie Le Pen had seen his health decline in recent years, notably hospitalized in April 2023 for a heart attack as well as in February 2022 following a mild form of stroke .

Born June 20, 1928 in La Trinité-sur-Mer, Brittany, son of a seamstress and a fisherman who died at sea in 1942. As a ward, he tried two years later to enlist in the French Forces of the interior (FFI) against the Germans. From 1953 he served in the army during the Indochina and Algerian wars, during which he received several military distinctions.

Poujadiste, he was elected deputy in January 1956, at the age of 27 he was then the youngest member of the National Assembly. Regional councilor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur on several occasions, he was also a European deputy for more than thirty-three years. His departure from the European Parliament in the summer of 2019 marked the end of his political career.

Notorious fact of his career, during the presidential elections of 2002, he reached the general surprise in the second round against the outgoing president Jacques Chirac who was re-elected with the support of the left. He was a candidate for the supreme nomination five times.

He has three children, the youngest of whom, Marine Le Pen, took over the reins of the National Front in 2011. A party which she renamed the National Rally in 2018. Remaining honorary president, he was finally excluded in 2015 at the following his controversial comments on the gas chambers of the Second World War and his refusal to consider Marshal Pétain as a “traitor”.