As the father of European far-right politics passes away, Euronews looks back at his most shocking moments during his time as a Member of the European Parliament.
Jean-Marie Le Pen died this Tuesday at the age of 96. Leader of the National Front (FN), later renamed the National Rally (RN) when his daughter Marine took over, he served as an MEP for 35 years. During this time, he made a lasting mark in the chamber. From insults and Holocaust denial to legal troubles, here are the most controversial moments of the late MEP.
1) ‘The gas chambers were just a detail of World War Two’
Ever the provocateur, Le Pen brought the subject of the Holocaust to a 1987 edition of RTL’s Le Grand Jury. “I am not saying the gas chambers did not exist. But I do think they are nothing but a detail in the history of World War Two,” he claimed.
This outrage resurfaced at the European Parliament in 2009, where he stuck to his guns: “I stand firm in my position that the gas chambers are just a detail in the history of WW2”, huffed an irritated Le Pen, rolling his eyes when the crowd of MEPs booed him loudly.
It was an idea he repeated throughout the decades. Despite expressing regret in 1995, he doubled down in 1997, saying: “In a thousand-page book about WW2, concentration camps occupy two pages, and the gas chambers, 15 lines. That’s what we call a detail.”
2) Anything but Le Pen
Le Pen was so controversial among his colleagues in the European Parliament that they changed its rules to prevent him from presiding over sessions.
Until 2009, it was tradition for the oldest MEP to chair the first plenary session of Parliament while waiting for a new president to be elected.
To avoid this scenario, centre-right and left-wing MEPs pushed through amendments to the Parliament’s internal rules. Now, the sitting president chairs the first session and – if not re-elected – the most senior vice-president or the MEP with the longest tenure takes over.
3) ‘It feels like being among the Bolsheviks here!’
September 2011. During a debate on the Norwegian attacks that had occurred two months earlier, Le Pen linked the integration of immigrant populations to the massacre carried out by a far-right extremist. French Green MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit took offence, declaring: “It is intolerable that the European Parliament hosts a member who makes such racist and abhorrent remarks.”
In response, an enraged Le Pen retorted, “I have been attacked by the paedophile Cohn-Bendit (…). I have the right to remind people that he was implicated here for sheltering a Red Army Faction terrorist! I have the right to defend my honour!” His daughter Marine Le Pen was seen laughing.
As the then-President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, cut off his microphone, Le Pen shouted: “It feels like being among the Bolsheviks here!”
4) MEPs versus journalists: a parliamentary scuffle
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s power of polarization was such that tensions ran high even when he wasn’t in the room. The prime example? April 2002, when a fight broke out between MEPs and journalists stationed in one of the Parliament’s press rooms.
Le Pen had cancelled a press conference at the last minute, citing fears of being interrupted by hostile colleagues campaigning against him. But the atmosphere was so unpleasant that his absence caused a scuffle between the journalists he had left hanging on, and the MEPs who were present in the room.
The result was a chaotic situation, with journalists and parliamentarians clashing and hurling insults at each other.
But while the press faced off against the MEPs, where did Le Pen disappear to? The politician “used the back doors” to find his way back to his office, where he greeted a journalist and assured them “he was not demotivated” by all the agitation surrounding his persona.
5) One year ban from the Parliament
Le Pen was no stranger to the courts, frequently appearing over charges of glorifying war crimes, Holocaust denial, incitement to hatred, or public insults. However, it was a conviction for violence that cost him his seat in the European Parliament for a year.
In 1997, the MEP assaulted a Socialist candidate during the legislative elections in the Paris region. He was convicted for the attack a year later. This sentence also led to him temporarily losing his position as a regional councillor in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
After a legal battle in France and at the European level, he was finally expelled in April 2003, only to return in the European elections the following year. “A major injustice and sanctions that are completely disproportionate,” he said at the time of his exclusion.
6) Goodbye to the ‘useless’ European Parliament
After 35 years sitting on the hemicycle, Jean-Marie Le Pen shed no tears as he bid goodbye to the European Parliament. Instead, he used his final speech – a bitter, four-minute-long monologue in French – to bemoan the EU Parliament’s alleged “uselessness” towards the “migrant invasion”.
“You members of parliament, who stayed blind, deaf, and mute, will be cursed by the future. Europe is impotent. Worse: it paralyses the national reactions that should be mobilizing its peoples.”
After complaining that the institution was “nothing but a windmill” lugging bags of sand “as opposed to bags of grain” Le Pen remarked that his only memory, after serving a whopping eight consecutive parliamentary terms, was “a feeling of inefficiency”. He finished his speech to Eurosceptic claps.
7) The Front National fake jobs scandal
Le Pen and his party, the FN, were accused of embezzling funds between 2004 and 2016. The verdict is expected on the 31st of March, 2025, but due to his death, Le Pen will never be charged.
Last September, a trial began over the alleged embezzlement of European funds by Le Pen’s party.
Twenty-five people, including Jean-Marie Le Pen, stand accused of diverting European funds, intended to pay parliamentary assistants to MEPs, to individuals who were in fact working for the party between 2004 and 2016.
Jean-Marie Le Pen was declared unfit to attend the trial due to his fragile health. His lawyer stated that he “can no longer travel, and his faculties are severely diminished.”
A verdict is expected on 31 March next year.
