On the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen died on Tuesday at the age of 96. Having founded the far-right Front National in 1972 - the predecessor of today's Rassemblement National - he reached the runoff vote in the French presidential election in 2002. In 2011 he handed over the party leadership to his daughter Marine. What is his legacy?
An intolerable extremist
Jean-Marie Le Pen must not be glorified now that he is dead, Le Temps warns:
“The RN has never been closer to power than it is now. In a France that is in a perpetual state of political crisis it could contribute to the fall of François Bayrou's government at any time, just as it did with Michel Barnier. In a few days' time Trump will be sworn in again as US President. The far-right FPÖ has been tasked with forming a government in Austria, Giorgia Meloni is governing in Italy and in Germany the AfD is expected to make a breakthrough in the federal elections in February. ... However, we shouldn't jump to conclusions based on these very different contexts. Jean-Marie Le Pen was an intolerable extremist and must be remembered as such.”
The patriarch has left but his ideology remains
Le Pen stood and still stands for the ideology of the French right, La Stampa explains:
“He hadn't held an electoral mandate since 2019. And he was expelled from the Front National (which was renamed Rassemblement National in 2018) almost ten years ago at the instigation of his daughter Marine. ... But the figure of Jean-Marie Le Pen remained present in the French panorama. ... Not only because he was the first representative of the far right to make it to the run-off in a presidential election - in 2002 against the Gaullist Jacques Chirac. But also because his ideas continue to knock on the doors of power with the RN, which emerged as the strongest party in the first round of the parliamentary elections in June with over 33 percent of the vote.”
Legends are already taking shape
The Rassemblement National is making political hay from Le Pen's demise, Le Quotidien sighs:
“Marine Le Pen insists to anyone who will listen that her party is not far right and has broken with the National Front's past. ... But reading the messages published by her party's members of the National Assembly honouring Jean-Marie Le Pen, the masks come off. ... For the Rassemblement National, Jean-Marie Le Pen is more useful dead than alive. The party's activists and elected representatives are already beginning to weave a legend around this political monster, calling him a courageous soldier, a committed MP and a defender of France who stood alone against all the others. ... His history is terribly darker, but the propaganda machine will soon be up and running.”