Over 1,000 people attended a memorial ceremony 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.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said she will never forgive herself for expelling her father Jean-Marie Le Pen from her party, after he died last week aged 96.

The leader of France's far-right Rassemblement National, a party founded by her late father in 1972 and previously named the Front National, expelled him in 2015 over his anti-Semitic remarks.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s main far-right party and a polarizing figure in French politics, is being buried in a private family ceremony in his hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany.

For years, the far-right National Rally tried to distance itself from Mr. Le Pen’s racist and antisemitic remarks. But after his death Tuesday, it hailed him as a visionary.

Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of France's far-right National Rally, on Wednesday commemorated the death of her father and the party's founder. Jean-Marie Le Pen. "A venerable age had taken the warrior,

Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of Marine Le Pen and the defining figure of France’s postwar far-right movement, has died at the age of 96, according to French network BFMTV.

By founding the National Front in 1972 — which has since been rebranded and is led by his daughter Marine Le Pen — Jean-Marie Le Pen ushered in a new brand of extreme-right politics. His legacy remains embedded in some of today’s dominant political parties.

His death was as controversial as his life. Last 14 November, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 96-year-old Front National founder, who’d been taken to a West Paris hospital after collapsing (since 2022 he’d had several small strokes),

Le Pen was convicted numerous times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence. But the nativist ideas that propelled his popularity remain ascendant in today's France and beyond.