The famous French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen died on Tuesday, January 7. The founder of the far-right National Rally party and former French presidential candidate passed away at the age of 96. This was reported by UNN with reference to Le Figaro and The Guardian.
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Jean-Marie Le Pen had been in the hospital for several weeks and died at noon on Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones," his family said in a statement. He made his last public appearance in 2018 on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
Le Pen has run for president five times and impressed France in 2002 when she knocked out Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the first round of voting and faced Jacques Chirac in the second round of voting at the Elysee Palace. However, Chirac won with a convincing margin of over 82% of the vote.
Last year, Le Pen and his daughter Marine Le Pen were charged with misappropriating money from the European Parliament using fictitious jobs. Jean-Marie Le Pen was excused from attending the court for health reasons.
Le Pen has repeatedly sparked controversy and lawsuits over his views on the Holocaust, which he has called "a mere detail" in the history of World War II.
Le Pen has been convicted and fined several times for denying crimes against humanity. In 2014, he suggested that the deadly Ebola virus could be a solution to the global population explosion.
Two years later, he was convicted of "provoking hatred and ethnic discrimination" for saying at a public meeting three years earlier that Roma in the city "cause rashes" and stink.
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