Jean-Marie Le Pen’s health is worrying his loved ones: at 96 years old, the menhir has lost some of its mental faculties, according to doctors.
Jean-Marie Le Pen is ill and his state of health will not allow him to attend the trial of the National Front, accused of embezzlement of European Parliament funds, which begins on September 30. Doctors have in fact indicated in a report to the courts, a few weeks ago, that the former president of the far-right party now has “no awareness of the purpose, meaning and scope of this hearing”, unable to “concentrate for more than a few minutes”.
On July 3, the Paris judicial court ruled in his favor and considered that his state of health could exempt him from appearing in court in the fall. “Mr. Le Pen can no longer move and his faculties are considerably impaired,” his lawyer had argued during a hearing in March, to plead his case before this decision. Jean-Marie Le Pen was also placed under the legal protection regime, the equivalent of a guardianship, at the request of his children.
Last April 2023, the founder of the National Front (which became the National Rally in 2018) was hospitalized in the Paris region due to a “cardiac” illness. Since then, his state of health has been worrying. Speaking to Le Parisien, a friend of the former presidential candidate mentioned “major problems with immediate memory”. “He no longer remembers who he saw the day before. He is very tired,” he said.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, an elderly man in fragile health
The former president of the National Front has been hospitalized several times in recent years. He was notably taken to hospital in February 2022 after a mild form of stroke: a transient ischemic attack. However, his state of health was considered good at the time, given this significantly serious malaise. The stroke was then very quickly identified. He was hospitalized as a precaution after losing his vision for a minute.
In June 2018, a “dangerous pulmonary complication” led him to be hospitalized for about ten days. In April of the same year, it was a persistent fever that led to a hospital stay.
Jean-Marie Le Pen has spoken several times in the media about his failing health and his death. Speaking to France Inter in 2019, the FN patriarch was quite philosophical. “I tell myself that I am on the final stretch and, consequently, I am led for the first time in my life to think about my age,” assured the former controversial political leader. “It will last as long as it will last, we don’t know. But I will try to stay true to myself,” confided the man nicknamed the “menhir”. Speaking to Le Parisien, Jean-Marie Le Pen used the same metaphor, considering that at the end of the final stretch, he would “have to jump”.
Promoting the second volume of his memoir in 2019, Tribune of the peopleone of his last priorities, Jean-Marie Le Pen saw it “a testament”. The former leader of the FN dwelt on his many health concerns and mentioned “survival devices: glass eyes, artificial hips, pacemakers and what else”. “I have become Robocop”, he quipped. He also wrote these lines: “Today, I am nothing more than history” and “When I look back, I don’t regret much”.
“I only have one eye left and it will get worse and worse,” he said.was he having fun also with the Parisian. And to open up even more about his health problems, which have accumulated in recent years. “I wake up in the morning exhausted. I have a hell of a time getting going, I count to ten to get up.” The patriarch evoked so difficulty moving without his cane, but assured so, mockingly : si “the bottom doesn’t work very well, the top much better”.
For nearly forty years, Jean-Marie Le Pen was the president of the National Front, from 1972, when the party was founded, to 2011, when he handed over to his daughter Marine Le Pen. However, he has been its honorary president since January 2011. His political career began in 1956 when he was elected as a member of parliament. He successively obtained the mandate of municipal councilor for the 20th arrondissement of Paris, regional councilor for the Ile-de-France region, member of parliament for Paris and member of the European Parliament, a position he still holds today.
On April 21, 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen created a surprise by reaching the second round of the presidential elections. Beaten by Jacques Chirache decided to try his luck again by finding allies for the future campaign. In 2007, Jean-Marie Le Pen officially became the oldest French candidate in a presidential election. But his score was in sharp decline and he did not reach the second round. Many controversies surrounded Jean-Marie Le Pen, particularly concerning his denial of the gas chambers, his delicate past concerning “methods of constraint” during the war or his frequent racist remarks.
His daughter Marine Le Pen succeeded him in 2011 and entered the race for the presidency in 2012. In 2014, Jean-Marie Le Pen began a third term as a Member of the European Parliament. To everyone’s surprise, the National Front came out on top in the 2014 European elections in France. In 2015, after returning to his controversial remarks on the gas chambers, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him within the FN. Jean-Marie Le Pen was finally expelled from the National Front in August 2015.
Jean-Marie Le Pen’s heavy judicial past recalled
Having retired from political life, Jean-Marie Le Pen left the presidency of the FN in 2011, which was then led by his daughter Marine Le Pen. Their relationship deteriorated, as the former politician criticized the RN’s “de-demonization” strategy. He was expelled from the party in 2016, after repeating comments that the gas chambers were a “detail of history”. During his life, Jean-Marie Le Pen was convicted of “apology for war crimes and contestation of crimes against humanity”, but also for “incitement to hatred, discrimination and racial violence”. As a reminder, Jean-Marie Le Pen also practiced torture in Algeria.
In August 2022, he spoke about RN deputies, believing that they were not sufficiently present in the media. He called on them to “react” and to be “more aggressive towards power”, indicates The Figaro. He had said he was not sure that his daughter was “willing”. “Eighty-nine deputies in the National Assembly, that is not yet power, but almost”, he had congratulated himself after the results of the legislative elections, during which the RN made an electoral breakthrough.
Jean-Marie Le Pen: key dates
- June 20, 1928: Birth of Jean-Marie Le Pen, French far-right politician.
- Jean-Marie Le Pen was born on June 20, 1928 in La Trinité-sur-Mer. He entered political life very early, a Poujadist MP at the age of 27, and in 1972 he became the president of the National Front. He did not leave this position until 2011. His far-right nationalist party focuses its ideas in particular on a policy of fighting immigration. His daughter Marine Le Pen took over the presidency of the party in 2011.
- October 5, 1972: Creation of the FN
- Jean-Marie Le Pen, former youngest member of parliament in France in 1956, founded a far-right party called: Front National. He was supported by the “Ordre Nouveau” movement, of which he was the campaign director for the 1965 presidential elections by supporting the former Secretary of State of the Vichy governmentTixier-Vignancour. “Odre Nouveau” will be dissolved in 1973 by the Council of Ministers. Having remained unnoticed at its creation, the FN will assert itself in the French political landscape after the presidential elections of 1981. Jean-Marie Le Pen has been its president since its creation.
- September 13, 1987: Jean-Marie Le Pen drops his “detail of the story”
- During the RTL Le Monde Grand Jury, the president of the National Front claims that the gas chambers are only a “detail in the history of the Second World War”. By relativizing Nazi crimes, Jean-Marie Le Pen raises an outcry.
- April 21, 2002: Jean-Marie Le Pen reaches the second round of the presidential election
- The National Front candidate won 16.86% of the vote, and Jacques Chirac 19.88%. Lionel Jospin, defeated with 16.18% of the vote, immediately announced that he was retiring from political life. This event triggered numerous demonstrations throughout the country, and Chirac was ultimately largely re-elected in the second round with 82.21% of the vote.