Tomb of French far-right leader vandalised weeks after he was buried
The tomb of French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has been heavily damaged by vandals less than three weeks after he was buried.
Le Pen, who was a figurehead of polarising anti-immigration rhetoric for decades after founding the National Front party in the 1970s, was buried in the Brittany region on January 11 four days after dying at the age of 96.
A photo posted on X by one of Le Pen’s daughters appeared to show parts of the stone tomb – which is shared with other deceased members of the family – were smashed to bits.
The damage was inflicted using a sledgehammer, according to local news outlet Ici Bretagne.
The cemetery had been under heavy police surveillance and patrols in the days before and after the burial.
Authorities said the measures were required due to the ‘political sensitivity’ of the site, although security was later scaled down.
‘There are no words to describe those who attack the most sacred of things’, said Marie-Caroline Le Pen — one of Le Pen’s three daughters – on X.
‘Those who attack the dead are capable of the worst against the living’, she added.
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau described the incident as ‘an absolute abjection’.
‘Respect for the dead is what distinguishes civilisation from barbarism’, he said.
Authorities said patrols of the site will now be stepped up again.
Le Pen’s extreme views gained popularity in the 1980s and made the National Front a small but persistent mainstay of French politics.
Under his leadership, the party never gained more than 15% of the vote in National Assembly (parliament) elections, although it gained more success after his daughter Marine Le Pen took over.
She kicked her father out of the party in 2015 after he repeatedly described the Holocaust as a ‘detail’ of World War II, and twice faced current president Emmanuel Macron in the final round of the two most recent presidential elections.
Mr Le Pen focused his polarising rhetoric against Islam and Muslim immigrants, blaming them for France’s social and economic problems.
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