PARIS (Reuters) – Jean-Marie Le Pen, an unabashed nationalist and founder of the French far-right National Rally party, has died aged 96, sources close to his daughter Marine Le Pen said on Tuesday.
JORDAN BARDELLA, CHAIRMAN OF THE FAR-RIGHT NATIONAL RALLY
“Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead. Enlisted in the uniform of the French army in Indochina and Algeria, orator in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he always served France, defended its identity and its sovereignty. Today my thoughts are with his family, his loved ones, and of course of (his daughter) Marine whose mourning must be respected.”
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ERIC ZEMMOUR, FORMER FAR-RIGHT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
“Beyond the controversies, beyond the scandals, what we will remember about him in the coming decades is that he was among the first to alert France to the existential threats that awaited it. His legacy will be his vision and his courage, at a time when courageous men were not so numerous.”
(Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Zhifan Liu, editing by Jean-Michel Belot, William Maclean)