PARIS (AP) — More than 1,000 individuals gathered on Thursday in central Paris to pay their respects at a memorial ceremony for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s prominent far-right party, who passed away last week at the age of 96. The “mass for the repose of the soul” unfolded at the Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church amid stringent security measures due to Le Pen’s controversial legacy, marked by convictions for antisemitism, discrimination, and incitement of racial violence.
Family members, prominently his daughter Marine Le Pen, the current leading figure of the far-right movement in France, along with other officials from the National Rally party and devoted supporters, congregated inside the church. The general public was able to observe the ceremony through large screens positioned outside the church.
A private funeral had been held the prior week in Le Pen’s hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany. Jean-Marie Le Pen fathered three daughters, with Marine being the youngest. Transforming her father’s National Front in the 2010s into the National Rally, Marine has propelled the party to become a formidable political force within France, positioning herself as a potential contender in the 2027 presidential elections.
As the Le Pen family emerged from the church at the conclusion of the mass, they were met with applause from the assembled crowd. Notable attendees included Eric Zemmour, a contentious talk show host known for his far-right views, who ran against Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential race and has faced multiple convictions for inciting hate speech.
Marion Maréchal, Le Pen’s niece and a current member of the European Parliament who had previously aligned with Zemmour before establishing her own far-right party, was also in attendance. Furthermore, French comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, who has a history of convictions for promoting antisemitism and racial hatred, was present outside the church. M’Bala M’Bala, subjected to house arrest with an electronic monitoring device since May, cited a court’s permission for his attendance.
To maintain order and prevent security breaches, a considerable police presence was deployed around the church premises on the day of the ceremony. Following Le Pen’s passing, spontaneous gatherings erupted across various French cities, including Lyon and Marseille, with demonstrators congregating at Place de la République in Paris to express their reactions to the news.
SOS Racisme, an anti-racism organization, offered recognition to “generations of activists who have devoted their time, youth, and energy to combat the National Front and its ideologies.” Notably, in a 1987 interview, Jean-Marie Le Pen infamously referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a “detail in World War II history”, a statement he reiterated in 2015, asserting no remorse for his words. This declaration drew disapproval from his daughter Marine, who sought to distance herself from
