The office of President Emmanuel Macron said drily that “history will judge” Le Pen’s role in France.
“The president sends his condolences to his family,” it added in a statement. There was no reaction so far from Macron in person.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said that anybody who had fought against Le Pen in politics had found out “what a fighter he was”.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a hardline right-winger, said that “whatever one’s opinion of Jean-Marie Le Pen may be, there can be no doubt that he made a mark on his times.”
He added: “A page in French political history has been turned.”
‘Political empire’
French daily Liberation said that Le Pen had “turned his name and his family into a political empire” and “managed to force his racist, xenophobic and nationalist identity ideas into the heart of the political debate”.
The Le Monde newspaper said that Le Pen had “embraced all of the ups and downs of French extreme-right history” throughout his career.
Daily La Croix called him “the man who caused the extreme right to take root in France”.
There has so far been no reaction from Marine Le Pen herself.
Jean-Marie Le Pen withdrew progressively from politics after his daughter took the party’s leadership, and had battled with health problems in recent months.
Last June, before he was supposed to stand trial with others over an alleged fake-jobs scheme at the European Parliament, a medical report said there had been such “a profound deterioration” of his health and that he was unable to attend.
He was hospitalised in November, and then moved to a care facility near his home in a western suburb of Paris.
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© 2025 AFP
