Jean-Marie Le Pen was divisive and difficult – but he changed the shape of French politics
Jean-Marie Le Pen was variously loved and loathed – but he changed the shape of modern French politics.
His youth was shaped by war and he then lived a life of constant battles.
Le Pen’s political career, which was a very long one, was all about belligerence, anger, regret and scapegoats. In his world, everything that had gone wrong could be blamed on someone else.
French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has died
Mostly, his targets were either migrants or Muslims, or ideally migrants who were also Muslims. But he also berated bureaucrats, gay people and the Arab world in general.
He was convicted of inciting discrimination, downplayed the Holocaust as merely “a detail”, assaulted a fellow MP in the European Parliament and was eventually expelled from his own party – then led by his own daughter – for being an unapologetic extremist.
And yet it would be wrong to write Le Pen off as merely an agitator.
He was, instead, a catalyst within French politics – a lightning rod who edged far-right opinions back towards the mainstream. He maintained that France was for the French, a nationalist sentiment that resonates across so many countries to this day.
Le Pen was born in Brittany in 1928, the son of a fisherman and a seamstress. His father, Jean, was killed when his boat was blown up by a German mine during the Second World War but Le Pen went on to enjoy military life and served in Vietnam and Algeria. He bemoaned France’s withdrawal from its colonies and, as he saw it, the consequent loss of power and prestige.
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France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen dies
On his return to France, Le Pen moved into right-wing politics. He helped to form the National Front in 1972, uniting a disparate group of supporters. Emboldened, Le Pen ran for president in 1974, but ended up with less than 1% of the vote.
He had, however, started the process of establishing himself as a profoundly divisive figure.
In 1976, his apartment was bombed, blowing out a side of the building. Nobody was killed and the perpetrators were never caught.
But the violence of the attack against him seemed to energise Le Pen. And the following year, a wealthy supporter left him a new home – a mansion to the west of Paris built on the orders of Napoleon III. Le Pen, along with his three daughters – Marie-Caroline, Yann and Marine – all lived there.
Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter Marine Le Pen in 2012. Pic: Reuters
Their mother, Pierrette, separated from Le Pen because of his extreme views. He refused to pay alimony saying that “if she wants money, she can clean”. Instead, she accepted the offer to pose for semi-naked photos in Playboy magazine, wearing a maid’s outfit and pretending to clean. The magazine sold around 250,000 more copies than normal.
That crushing electoral defeat did not dissuade Le Pen. Instead, it was to be merely the first of five attempts to win the presidency. None would be successful but on one extraordinary occasion, in 2002, he came second in the first round of popular voting, with the backing of 4.8m voters.
It was a result that pushed Le Pen into a run-off against the sitting president, Jacques Chirac. Fearful of Le Pen’s extremism, Mr Chirac won backing from across the political spectrum and emerged with the biggest landslide in France’s modern history – 82% for him, 18% for Le Pen. Mr Chirac’s vote rose by nearly 20m votes from the first round – Le Pen’s tally went up by just 700,000.
Jean-Marie Le Pen. Pic: Reuters
The outcome said much about Le Pen. He had enthused many in the far-right with a rhetoric that seemed, at times, anti-establishment, racist, antisemitic, xenophobic and radical, but which also promised to do anything to protect France and the French.
Clearly, there were millions who would support it but, just as clearly, there were many more who would do anything to stop Le Pen, even if that might mean voting for the widely disliked Mr Chirac. “Rather a crook than a racist” was a familiar statement at the time.
The election marked the high-water mark for Le Pen’s career. In the coming years, his support fell. In 2011, he stood down as leader and was succeeded by his daughter Marine Le Pen.
Jean-Marie Le Pen with his daughter Marine. Pic: AP
Le Pen continued as an MEP, but his uncompromising views became ever more at odds with Ms Le Pen’s more emollient approach.
When Le Pen refused to apologise for yet another antisemitic comment, he was suspended, and then expelled, from the party he had founded. A little later, Ms Le Pen was to rename the party the Rassemblement National – the National Rally – to further distance herself from her father’s shadow.
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He started a new far-right party and continued campaigning, but by now he was a spent force. There was only space for one Le Pen, and Ms Le Pen had usurped him.
But her father’s influence lingered on. “His impact is still very great today,” said Dr Benjamin Biard, a political analyst specialising in the far right.
“It’s not just Jean-Marie Le Pen. There is the impact of Marine Le Pen who also changed the party, mainly in its structure, its symbols and the way it communicates. For everything else, it has remained generally faithful to the ideals of the National Front as Jean-Marie Le Pen designed it when the party was first founded.
“His ability, playing in his charisma and his way of communicating, has been very inspirational for other political organisations in other countries, particularly in Europe.”
Le Pen brought raw, unapologetic opinions that were, for many, unpalatable, offensive, divisive and sometimes even illegal, but which also helped to remould French politics.
He enjoyed the spotlight, spoke with passion, and enjoyed smiling, performing and shaking hands while the storm swirled around him. Le Pen was divisive and difficult, but he was also impossible to ignore.
Three Chinese astronauts have successfully returned to Earth from their nation’s space station after their capsule was damaged.
The team deployed a red and white striped parachute as they descended, before landing at a remote site in the Gobi Desert in Asia on Friday.
The astronauts – Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie – had been due to return on 5 November to end their six-month rotation at the Tiangong space station.
However, their journey back was delayed by nine days because the Shenzhou-20 return capsule they were due to travel in was found to have tiny cracks.
These were most likely caused by the impact of space debris hitting the craft, China’s space agency said.
There are millions of pieces of mostly tiny particles that circle the Earth at speeds faster than a bullet.
They can come from launches and collisions and pose a risk to satellites, space stations and the astronauts who operate outside them.
With the Shenzhou-20 out of action, the crew – who travelled to the space station in April – used a Shenzhou-21 craft instead, which had brought a three-person replacement crew to the station.
The launch of the Shenzhou-21 craft from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province, China, on 31 October. Pic: Kyodo via AP
The Chinese space agency said the stranded taikonauts – the Chinese word for astronauts – had remained in good condition throughout.
The first module of the Tiangong, which means “Heavenly Palace”, was launched by the Chinese state in 2021.
It is smaller than the International Space Station, from which Beijing is blocked, due to US national security concerns.
China’s space programme has developed steadily since 2003.
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In a long term plan to advance its orbital capabilities, China plans to land a person on the moon by 2030 and has already explored Mars with a robotic rover.
The Asian nation’s latest space mission brought four mice to study how weightlessness and confinement would affect them.
An engineer from the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the study will help master key technologies for breeding and monitoring small mammals in space.
World
High Court rules company liable for Brazil dam collapse – the country’s worst environmental disaster
A judge has ruled that a company can be held liable for a dam collapse which devastated indigenous communities in Brazil and became the country’s worst environmental catastrophe.
At the High Court in London, Judge Finola O’Farrell ruled that mining giant BHP should not have continued to raise the height of the Fundao Dam before its collapse.
This, she ruled, was “a direct and immediate cause” of the disaster. BHP said immediately after that it would appeal the decision.
The case was brought in British courts because BHP was listed on the London Stock Exchange at the time of the collapse.
Brought by the international law firm Pogust Goodhead on behalf of hundreds of thousands of victims, the claim marks the first time any of the mining companies behind the dam have been held legally responsible for the disaster.
The dam’s collapse released approximately 40 million tons of toxic sludge, including arsenic, which spread 370 miles along the Doce River and out to sea. In total, 19 people died, while hundreds of homes were destroyed.
The case has become the largest environmental group action in English legal history, representing a significant milestone for holding corporations accountable and advancing environmental justice.
Gelvana Rodrigues da Silva, who lost her seven-year-old son Thiago in the flood, said in a statement: “Finally, justice has begun to be served, and those responsible have been held accountable for destroying our lives.”
Pic: Reuters
One of the largest civil claims ever in England
The Fundao Dam near the city of Mariana was operated by Samarco, a joint venture between BHP and Brazilian company Vale.
Its collapse happened almost 10 years ago to the day.
With 620,000 claimants, the case is one of the largest civil claims ever lodged in England and Wales.
The aftermath of the disaster in Bento Rodrigues district, Brazil. Pic: Reuters
A damaged house in Bento Rodrigues district. Pic: Reuters
Brazil is currently hosting the COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belem, aiming to position itself as a climate leader and champion of indigenous rights.
Shirley Djukurna Krenak, an indigenous leader whose community has lived for generations along the Doce River, said the summit is removed from the realities faced by indigenous peoples, and full of “greenwashing” and false promises.
“If all the previous COPs had worked, we wouldn’t still be talking about crimes like this,” she said.
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In October 2024, Brazil’s government and the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo signed a 132bn Brazilian real (£20bn) compensation settlement with Samarco, Vale and BHP, to fund social and environmental repairs.
BHP had argued that the court case in Britain duplicates other legal proceedings and reparations work.
Reacting to Friday’s judgment, the company said that settlements in Brazil would reduce the size of the London lawsuit by about half.
Vale, the co-owner of the company operating the dam, announced after the verdict that it estimated an additional expense of about $500m (£381m) in its 2025 financial statements to cover obligations linked to the disaster.
A second trial to determine the damages BHP is liable to pay is due to begin in October 2026.
The entrance of the Fabrica Nova iron ore mine in Mariana, Brazil, in November 2015. Pic: Reuters
How the Mariana dam disaster unfolded
On 5 November 2015, the Fundao tailings dam collapsed in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
It released approximately 40 million tons of toxic sludge, including arsenic, which buried the small town of Bento Rodrigues and poured pollution into the Doce River.
The mud travelled so quickly that residents did not have time to escape, and it killed 19 people. Around 600 people lost their homes.
The toxic waste made its way to the Atlantic Ocean, destroying water supplies, vehicles, habitats, livestock and livelihoods.
Ten years later, reconstruction and reparations have dragged on through legal disputes, and the indigenous Krenak people are still struggling to live along the Doce River that remains contaminated with heavy metals.
World
Sudan’s top paramilitary adviser says US calls to cut supply of weapons may ‘jeopardise ceasefire’
A top adviser to the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has said US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s remarks on halting weapons supplies “jeopardise ceasefire efforts”.
In his remarks yesterday, Mr Rubio called for international powers to stop sending military support to the RSF, the paramilitary group which has been at war with the Sudanese Army since 2023.
“This needs to stop. They’re clearly receiving assistance from outside,” Mr Rubio said.
In a statement on X, Elbasha Tibeig, adviser to RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, dismissed Mr Rubio’s comments as “an unsuccessful step” that does not serve global efforts aimed at reaching a humanitarian ceasefire.
Mr Tibeig said Mr Rubio’s comments may lead to an escalation of the fighting.
The US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt – known as the Quad – have been working on ways to end the war.
The war began in April 2023 after the Sudanese army and RSF, then partners, clashed over plans to integrate.
Last week, the RSF said they had agreed to a US-led proposal for a humanitarian ceasefire. Mr Rubio doesn’t believe the RSF intends to comply with that agreement.
“The RSF has concluded that they’re winning and they want to keep going,” he said yesterday.
He added that they’re “not just fighting a war, which war alone is bad enough. They’re committing acts of sexual violence and atrocities, just horrifying atrocities, against women, children, innocent civilians of the most horrific kind. And it needs to end immediately”.
Sudanese women who fled intense fighting in Al Fashir sit at a displacement camp in Al Dabba. Pic: Reuters/El Tayeb Siddig
The war has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation, and displaced millions more. Aid groups say that the true death toll could be much higher.
The RSF is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity across Sudan since the war started. Most recently, there were reports of mass killings during the fall of Al Fashir, a city which was recently captured by the RSF.
A Sky News investigation into events in Al Fashir found thousands were targeted in ‘killing fields’ around the Sudanese city.
Grab from RSF social media channels in Al Fashir, Sudan
Marco Rubio did not specify which countries he was referring to in his calls to halt arms supplies, but US intelligence assessments have found that the United Arab Emirates, a close US ally, has been supplying weapons.
Previous reporting on Sky News has supported allegations that the UAE militarily supports the RSF, though the country officially denies it.
“I can just tell you, at the highest levels of our government, that case is being made and that pressure is being applied to the relevant parties,” Mr Rubio said.
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