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Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen dies at 96

Updated Jan 7, 2025, 8:25am EST
Europe
Jean-Marie Le Pen delivers a speech in front of the statue of Jeanne d’Arc in Paris.
Philippe Wojazer/File Photo/Reuters
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Jean-Marie Le Pen, a co-founder of France’s far-right National Front, has died aged 96, his family said on Tuesday.

The ultra-nationalist was succeeded as leader of the National Front — then a movement on the fringes of French politics — by his daughter Marine Le Pen in 2011, who later expelled him from the party amid allegations of Holocaust denial.

The pair faced charges of embezzlement of public funds and collusion linked to the party’s use of money meant for European Parliament assistants.

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella paid tribute to Jean-Marie Le Pen on X: “As a soldier in the French army in Indochina and Algeria, as a tribune of the people in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he always served France and defended its identity and sovereignty.

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