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

PARIS (AP) — Over 1,000 people attended a memorial ceremony Thursday in central Paris for the founder of France’s main far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last week at the age of 96.

The “mass for the repose of the soul” at Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church took place under tight security, as Le Pen was a polarizing figure, convicted multiple times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.

Family members, including his daughter Marine Le Pen, now the leading far-right figure in France, other National Rally party officials and longstanding supporters gathered inside the church. The broader public was allowed to follow the ceremony via giant screens outside.

A private funeral took place last week in Le Pen’s hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany.

Jean-Marie had three daughters, including Marine, the youngest. She transformed her father’s National Front in the 2010s, renamed it the National Rally, and made it one of France’s most powerful political forces. She is now eyeing the 2027 presidential election.

Crowds applauded Le Pen’s family members as they came out of the church at the end of the mass.

Among those at the ceremony was Eric Zemmour, a controversial talk show pundit with views to the right of the far-right who competed against Marine Le Pen at the last presidential election, in 2022. Zemmour was convicted multiple times of inciting racist or religious hatred.

Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal, now a member of the European Parliament who once joined forces with Zemmour before launching her own far-right party last year, was also present.

Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala, a French comedian repeatedly convicted of inciting antisemitism or racial hatred, attended outside the church. He said on social media a court allowed him to go. The comedian has been under house arrest since May, tagged with an electronic bracelet.

Numerous police officers had been deployed Thursday around the church as authorities sought to avoid any security incident.

Last week, the death of the far-right politician pushed thousands of demonstrators onto the Place de la République in Paris to celebrate the news. The crowd could be seen dancing and chanting: “Happy New Year, Jean-Marie is dead.” Similar gatherings took place in other French cities, including Lyon and Marseille.

Anti-racism group SOS Racisme paid tribute to “generations of activists who have given their time, youth and energy to fight the National Front and its ideas.”

In an interview in 1987, Jean-Marie Le Pen referred to the Nazi gas chambers as a “detail in World War II history.”

He repeated the remark in 2015, saying he “did not at all” regret it, triggering the ire of his daughter, by then the party leader. She was seeking to distance herself from her father’s extremist image, and that year he was kicked out of the party.

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