The grave in western France of far-right movement cofounder Jean-Marie le Pen has been vandalized, his former party, National Rally, said on Friday, denouncing it as an “unspeakable” act.
Le Pen, who stunned France by reaching the run-off of presidential elections in 2002, died on Jan. 7 at the age of 96 after a career marked by openly racist and anti-Semitic views.
However, his death also prompted an outpouring of respectful tributes — not just from the movement that he led and which has undergone major change under his daughter Marine le Pen — but also the traditional right.
Photo: AFP
An image posted by Marie Caroline le Pen, another of his daughters, showed that the stone cross adorning the grave in La Trinite-sur-Mer, Brittany, had been smashed into pieces.
It is a family tomb, with his parents buried in the same plot.
“The desecration of Jean-Marie le Pen’s grave is an unspeakable act, committed by those who respect neither the living nor the dead,” National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella wrote on X. “I hope that they will be found and severely punished by the judiciary.”
Street parties had erupted in some French cities, including Paris, after Jean-Marie le Pen’s death was announced, prompting right-wing French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau to warn against “dancing on a corpse.”
“The degradation of the Le Pen family tomb in La Trinite is an absolute abomination,” Retailleau wrote on X after the grave vandalization. “Respect for the dead is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism.”
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