French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has died at the age of 96.
Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died at midday on Tuesday “surrounded by his loved ones,” the family said.
Le Pen was a Holocaust denier and an unrepentant extremist on race, gender, and immigration, who founded the French far-right National Front party in 1972.
He reached the presidential election run-off against Jacques Chirac in 2002.
In one way or another, Jean-Marie Le Pen spent his life fighting, whether as a soldier in France’s colonial wars, as a founder of the far-right National Front party, for which he contested five presidential elections, or in feuds with his daughters and ex-wife, often conducted publicly and furiously.
Le Pen’s daughter, Marine, took over as party chief in 2011. She has since rebranded the party as National Rally, turning it into one of France’s main political forces.
