Jean-Marie Le Pen - the French far-right political leader and participant in the run-off in the presidential elections in 2002, died today at the age of 96, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
He passed away in a hospital in the Paris region, where he was admitted a few weeks ago. “Jean-Marie Le Pen appeared before the Lord at 12 p.m. (1 p.m. Bulgarian time) on Tuesday“, said a statement from his family sent to AFP.
His daughter Marine Le Pen, who currently heads the parliamentary group of the “National Assembly“, is currently visiting the island of Mayotte (an overseas territory of France). There have been several reports in the media in recent days about Le Pen's hospitalization, but his family has so far denied that he is in critical condition, saying he has been admitted for medical tests.
Jean-Marie Le Pen shook up the French political order with his far-right party when he unexpectedly reached a runoff in the 2002 presidential election against Jacques Chirac with a mix of irascible populism, eloquence and charisma, Reuters noted.
He exploited voter dissatisfaction with immigration and job security and somewhat foreshadowed the rise of Donald Trump to the White House, the Associated Press noted. In one way or another, Jean-Marie Le Pen spent his life fighting - as a soldier in France's colonial wars, as the founder of the far-right National Front party, for which he ran in five presidential elections, or in often public and furious disputes with his daughters and ex-wife.
An implacable nationalist, he was a scourge of the European Union, which he saw as a supranational project that usurped the powers of nation states and sparked discontent that led Britain to vote to leave the European Union, the AP recalls. Jean-Marie Le Pen was succeeded as party leader by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who has since run for president three times and transformed the political formation, now called the National Rally, into one of the main political forces in France.