France
Jean-Marie Le Pen in hospital due to medical emergency
Jean-Marie Le Pen is from the French Front National party. photo
© Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/dpa
According to reports, the 94-year-old initially complained of exhaustion and was then taken to a hospital. Doctors should assess his health as “serious”.
The right-wing extremist founder of the French party Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been taken to hospital due to a medical emergency, according to media reports. The 94-year-old suddenly complained of severe exhaustion on Saturday in his house in the town of Rueil-Malmaison, west of Paris, the weekly magazine “Le Point” wrote. The reason for this may be heart problems, it said, citing a friend of the political veteran and other sources who were not named. The news channel BFMTV and the newspaper “Le Figaro” also reported on Le Pen’s admission to a hospital in the capital region. According to BFMTV, the doctors assess his state of health as “serious”.
Despite his advanced age and having retired from active politics years ago, Jean-Marie Le Pen still enjoys influence on the French right. He co-founded the Front National in 1972 and led it for nearly four decades. During this time, he transformed the FN from a right-wing splinter group into a serious political force, using pithy provocations to create anti-immigrant sentiment. His daughter Marine Le Pen took over the leadership of the party from him in 2011 and has been trying ever since to make the party electable by adopting a more moderate approach to middle-right and center voters.
The right-wing populist broke politically with her father after he repeatedly thwarted her strategy. The FN finally disfellowshipped Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2015 after he repeatedly downplayed the Nazi murder of Jews in gas chambers as a “detail of history” of World War II. He fought back bitterly, accused his daughter of “treason” and engaged in a long-term public feud with her. In court, he asserted that he was initially allowed to retain the title of honorary chairman. However, this was later deleted. A year after losing the 2017 presidential election, Marine Le Pen had the party renamed the Rassemblement National.