The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen looked likely to reignite rivalries in his family over who is the rightful heir to the far-right political dynasty, as the French government condemned as “simply shameful” crowds of people who took to the streets to celebrate the politician’s demise.
Marine Le Pen, daughter of the National Rally co-founder and leader of the far-right party she has rebranded as the anti-immigration National Rally, on Wednesday paid tribute to her father, who died the previous day at the age of 96.
“Many people he loves are waiting for him up there. Many people who love him are crying down here. Fair winds, fair seas, Papa,” she wrote in a post on X.
Her response contrasted with celebrations seen in Paris and other cities on Tuesday night, when thousands of people gathered with banners reading, among other things: “The dirty racist is dead.” “Happy new year,” some chanted, “Jean-Marie is dead.”
Le Pen, who first ran in France’s presidential election in 1974 and made it through to the second round in 2002 in a political earthquake, was known for his unabashed racism and antisemitism. He repeatedly described the Holocaust as a “detail” of history and claimed African immigration would “submerge” the country. France’s 1998 World Cup-winning football team, he said, had too many “players of colour” to be French.
On Wednesday, the rightwing interior minister Bruno Retailleau condemned the “scenes of jubilation” in the aftermath of his death as “simply shameful”. “The death of a man, even a political adversary, should inspire only restraint and dignity,” he said.
The French anti-racist movement SOS Racisme said Le Pen had spent his life promoting the far right through “racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and Holocaust denial”. The group paid tribute to “generations of activists who have given their time, youth and energy to fight the National Front and its ideas”.
Le Pen’s family have sought to put on a united front since Tuesday, but political analysts are on alert for possible cracks in support between the party’s old and new guard.
Marine Le Pen’s mission to “de-demonise” the far-right party has transformed it into a mainstream political force, albeit one that remains strongly anti-immigration and holds on to its traditional doctrine once known as “France for the French”, which it has renamed “national priority”.
But the change of image has led to public spats with her niece Marion Maréchal, who remains faithful to the late Le Pen’s more extreme line.
Marine Le Pen learned of her father’s death while on a stopover returning from Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, leaving Maréchal to announce she would continue his “mission”.
In a long post on X to the grandfather she called “Daddy”, Maréchal wrote: “Don’t worry: I have not forgotten the mission you gave me 13 years ago in your letter.”
Antoine Jardin, a political scientist and expert on France’s far right, said analysts would be closely watching developments in the far right over the next few weeks.
“We have seen splits and reconciliations back and forth and relations between the two have not stabilised over time. With relations already difficult it is possible there will be conflicts over the legacy of Jean-Marie Le Pen,” Jardin said.
“Marine Le Pen has unquestionably succeeded in normalising the far-right party, while Marion Maréchal has remained explicitly loyal to Jean-Marie Le Pen’s vision of the far right and remains anchored in the far right.”
He added: “We saw from Marine Le Pen’s expelling of her father from the party that she was willing to accept part of his legacy but not all. There will certainly be some discussions in the coming weeks.”
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Maréchal, 35, daughter of Yann Le Pen, the second of Jean-Marie Le-Pen’s three children, was a member of the National Rally until she stepped down in 2017 to found a political college in Lyon.
She took her grandfather’s side when Marine Le Pen took over the far-right party, changed its name and said she would clean up its xenophobic and antisemitic image, a process that eventually led to his expulsion.
“I cannot allow it to be said that the FN would exist without Jean-Marie Le Pen. To deny that would be grotesque … We are all heirs to Jean-Marie Le Pen,” she said in 2016. In 2018 she removed Le Pen from her then double-barrelled name.
During European elections in 2019 she refused to endorse the National Rally, a decision Marine said was “regrettable”.
In May last year, Maréchal, who supported the far-right candidate Éric Zemmour in the 2022 presidential election and Zemmour’s Reconquête party in the first round of European elections last year before finally backing the National Rally, was asked about her relationship with her aunt during a chatshow.
“We’ve made a deal. We only talk about Macron or LFI [France Unbowed]. That way on the whole we don’t talk about the subjects likely to anger,” Maréchal said. “But Marine and I love each other. We’re family. We have political disagreements – it happens in every family.”
Last October, Maréchal launched her own political party, Identity-Freedoms.
“Given election results over the last few years, Marine Le Pen has assured the far right a place in the second round in the next presidential election. The political force is with her,” Jardin said. “The question is whether Marion will seek to have a [political] standing of her own.”
Any attempt by Maréchal to have a greater role in the National Rally could find her in conflict with the party president, Jordan Bardella, 29, he said.
“Historically the two have been relatively distant, but it could be that Marine Le Pen will be called upon to arbitrate between the two in future.”
Le Pen will be buried on Saturday in a “private family ceremony” at his birthplace at La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany. His family said a memorial service would be held at the Val-de-Grâce church in Paris on 16 January.
Article by:Source Kim Willsher in Paris
