Death of Jean-Marie Le Pen: from Jordan Bardella to Jean-Luc Mélenchon via Emmanuel Macron… the main political reactions

Jean-Marie Le Pen, historic leader of the French far right, founder and former president of the National Front, died at the age of 96, we learned on Tuesday.

Emmanuel Macron

In a statement published by the Elysée, the head of state expressed his condolences to the family and friends of Jean-Marie Le Pen. “A historical figure of the extreme right, he played a role in the public life of our country for nearly seventy years, which is now the subject of the judgment of History“, it is added.

Jordan Bardella

“Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead. Enlisted in the uniform of the French army in Indochina and Algeria, tribune of the people in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he always served France, defended its identity and its sovereignty“, writes Jordan Bardella on X.

François Bayrou

“Beyond the controversies that were his favorite weapon and the necessary confrontations on the substance, JM Le Pen will have been a figure of French political life. We knew, by fighting him, what a fighter he was”, writes François Bayrou on X.

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Bruno Retailleau

“Today, a page in French political history is turning. Whatever opinion one may have of Jean-Marie Le Pen, he will have incontestably marked his era,” writes Bruno Retailleau on X.

Eric Zemmour

“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. He will remain the vision of a man, and his courage, at a time when courageous men were not so numerous,” writes Eric Zemmour on X.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan

“Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead. A monument of French political life disappears. Beyond the controversies, he will have marked his time by the strength and constancy of his national convictions. Affectionate thoughts to his daughters and to all those who loved him”, writes Nicolas Dupont-Aignan on X.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon

“Respect for the dignity of the dead and the grief of their loved ones does not erase the right to judge their actions. Those of Jean-Marie Le Pen remain unbearable. The fight against the man is over. The fight against the hatred, racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that he spread continues“, writes Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X.

Philippe Poutou

“It's crazy, wishes work! The year 2025 is not starting too badly with this good news from the death of Le Pen, a racist, a colonialist, a fascist, a torturer, a murderer, a homophobe, etc… but that changes nothing in the united antifascist fight that must be waged urgently”, writes Philippe Poutou on X.

Tom Van Grieken, leader of the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang

“With the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen and her family lose a (grand)father and nationalist Europe loses a founding father”, he writes on X.

Parti du Rassemblement national

“Jean-Marie Le Pen has left us. With him, a page is turned in French political history and, given the continental impetus he gave to the fight for the Nations, in European political history”, writes the RN in a press release.