Crowds attend Paris memorial for far-right French leader Jean-Marie Le Pen under tight security

Jean-Marie Le Pen: rabble-rousing co-founder of the French National Front

Once called the 'most hated man in France', Le Pen maintained that his ideas were simply 'ahead of their time'

The mass in tribute to the founder of the FN brought together in Paris all the chapels of the extreme right, from the most radical antisemites and denialists to the elected representatives of the National Rally, including activists from violent groups.

Most of them banned from accessing the Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church, where a mass in memory of Jean-Marie Le Pen was taking place on Thursday, January 16, several figures of the radical extreme right made the trip to greet the co-founder of the National Front.

French Pay Respects to Far-Right Firebrand as His Party Moves to Center

Hundreds of mourners flocked to Paris’s venerable Val-de-Grâce church on Thursday to pay their final respects to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the architect of France’s modern far-right movement who was known for his racist and antisemitic remarks. A speaker at the requiem Mass praised Mr. Le Pen, saying he had “perceived, before all others, the dangers that threaten France today.” A choir sang a French military song asking God for “the ardor to fight.” Th…

A little over two thousand people gathered in Paris in tribute to the founder of the National Front who died on January 7.

The entire Le Pen clan came for the religious celebration in tribute to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the patriarch and co-founder of the National Front, this Thursday in Paris.