Jean-Marie Le Pen: National Front co-founder dies at 96 [Video]

PARIS –

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, died Tuesday. He was 96.

A polarizing figure in French politics, Le Pen was convicted numerous times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence. His statements — including Holocaust denial, racist denunciations of Muslims and immigrants and his 1987 proposal to forcibly isolate people with AIDS in special facilities — shocked his critics and strained his political alliances.

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Le Pen routinely countered that he was simply a patriot protecting the identity of “eternal France.”

Le Pen, who once reached the second round of the 2002 presidential election, was eventually estranged from his daughter, …