PARIS (AP) – More than 1,000 people attended a memorial service in central Paris on Thursday for the founder of France's main far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last week at the age of 96.
The “mass for the repose of the soul” took place at the church of Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce under tight security, as Le Pen polarizing figure, convicted several times of anti-semitism, discrimination and incitement of racial violence.
Family members, including his daughter of Marine Le Penwho is now France's far-right leader, other National Rally party officials and longtime supporters gathered inside the church. The general public was allowed to follow the ceremony through large outdoor screens.
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A private funeral was held last week in Le Pen's home town of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany.
Jean-Marie had three daughters, including Marine, the youngest. She changed her father's National Front in the 2010s, called it the National Rally, and made it one of the most powerful political forces in France. She is now monitoring the 2027 presidential election.
The crowd praised Le Pen's family members as they came out of the church at the end of the mass.
Among those at the ceremony was Eric Zemmour, a controversial talk show host views to the right of the extreme right who competed against Marine Le Pen in the last presidential election, in 2022. Zemmour was has been convicted many times of inciting racist or religious hatred.
Le Pen's nieceMarion Maréchal, now a member of the European Parliament who once joined Zemmour before launching her own far-right party last year, was also present.
Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, French comedian often condemned to promote antisemitism or racial hatred, serving outside the church. He said on social media that a court allowed him to go. The comedian has been under house arrest since May, tagged with an electronic bracelet.
Several police officers were deployed around the church on Thursday as authorities tried to avoid any security incident.
Last week, the death of the far-right politician pushed thousands of demonstrators to the Place de la République in Paris to celebrate the news. The crowd could be seen dancing and singing: “Happy New Year, Jean-Marie is dead.” Similar gatherings were held in other French cities, including Lyon and Marseille.
The anti-racism group SOS Racisme paid tribute to “generations of activists who gave their time, youth and energy to fight against the National Front and its ideas.”
In an interview in 1987, Jean-Marie Le Pen referred to the Nazi gas chambers as “a detail in the history of the Second World War”.
He repeated the comment in 2015, saying he “didn't regret it at all”, dismissing his daughter, the party leader at the time. She was trying to separate herself from her father's terrorist image, and that year he was kicked out of the party.
