Years later, he boasted that the rise of the far right around Europe showed his ideas had gone mainstream.
Born in the port of La Trinite-sur-Mer in the western Brittany region on June 20, 1928, he was the son of a seamstress and a fisherman.
His father’s fishing boat hit a mine during World War II, killing him — a loss that hit the young Le Pen hard.
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French far-right figurehead Jean-Marie Le Pen dies at 96
France’s far-right figurehead Jean-Marie Le Pen died Tuesday aged 96, according to local media. Le Pen founded France’s National Front party, which is now known as the National Rally and led by his daughter Marine.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died Tuesday aged 96, was the far-right bogeyman of French politics, infamously dismissing the Holocaust as a detail of history and spending half a century whipping up anger over immigration.
The co-founder of the far-right National Front — later renamed the National Rally — was eventually booted out of the party by his daughter Marine for anti-Semitism.
A former paratrooper, Le Pen sent shock waves through France in 2002 when he made it to the second round of the presidential election, which was won by Jacques Chirac.
Le Pen, who seemed more at ease in the role of provocateur than would-be president, appeared as surprised as everyone else by his spectacular breakthrough.
Years later, he boasted that the rise of the far right around Europe showed his ideas had gone mainstream.
Born in the port of La Trinite-sur-Mer in the western Brittany region on June 20, 1928, he was the son of a seamstress and a fisherman.
His father’s fishing boat hit a mine during World War II, killing him — a loss that hit the young Le Pen hard.
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Colonial war junkie
Anxious to see action, Le Pen volunteered for service in two wars in French colonies — the First Indochina War (1946-1954) in Vietnam, and then in Algeria (1954-1962).
Shortly after his return from Algeria he entered politics and became France’s youngest MP at 27 when he was elected to parliament in 1956.
But he was unable to resist the lure of the battlefield.
Later that year, he took part in the Franco-British military expedition to seize the Suez Canal, and a few years later joined forces fighting to keep Algeria French.
As in Vietnam, he was infuriated to see France losing its colonial possessions, accusing World War II hero Charles de Gaulle of “helping make France small” by granting Algeria its independence.
A consummate orator and trained lawyer, he tapped into the anger of rightwingers nostalgic for the empire and French settlers forced to flee the North African country.
The eye patch he wore for many years added to his pugilistic air.
Years later Le Pen revealed that he lost his eye driving a tent peg into a hole, and not, as was widely thought, in a brawl.
