He co-founded what became France’s biggest opposition party, National Rally, rooted in deep anti-immigrant sentiment.

A polarizing figure in French politics, Le Pen’s controversial statements led to multiple convictions and strained his political alliances.

In 2002, he unexpectedly made it to the second round of the presidential election, winning 18% of the vote in the first round

JEAN-Marie Le Pen, the nationalist founder of the French far-right National Front party, has died aged 96. Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died at midday Tuesday

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right party Front National, has died. He was 96. His family confirmed the news in a statement sent to the AFP and said he died “surrounded by his loved ones.”

He was known for his fiery anti-immigrant rhetoric that earned him both staunch support and widespread condemnation.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the longtime face of the far right in France notorious for his hate speech and Holocaust denial convictions, has died, his family told French newswire AFP. He was 96 years old.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died Tuesday aged 96, was the far-right bogeyman of French politics, infamously dismissing the Holocaust as a detail of history and spending half a century whipping up anger over immigration.

Mr Le Pen helped re-write the parameters of French politics in a career spanning 40 years. Read more at straitstimes.com.

- Honorary President of far-right party National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen, left, and his daughter French far-right leader and National Front Party candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections,