French media reported that 94-year-old Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front party, was taken to hospital on Holy Saturday night.

Mr Le Pen complained of feeling unwell and tired from his home in Rueil-Malmaison, west of Paris, Le Point magazine reported online.

He may have had a heart attack, the magazine added, citing a friend of the far-right veteran of French politics and other unnamed sources.

According to the BFMTV channel and the publication of the Le Figaro newspaper, doctors assess his state of health as “severe”. However, the French agency reported a “mild” heart attack.

Despite his advanced age and the fact that he has retired from active politics for many years, the five-fold failed French presidential candidate retains influence on the French right and far right. Co-founder of the National Front in 1972 led it for nearly four decades. His daughter Marin inherited the leadership of the faction in 2011, changed its name to “National Alert” and tried to expand its appeal, “demonetize”.

She expelled her father from the party in 2015 due to his repeated statements in which he downplayed the Holocaust, among other things. Jean-Marie Le Pen donated hard fight with her and continues to resent his daughter’s decision, which he blames “betrayal“.

He also states that he has no remorse for his incredible positions over the years, especially about the Holocaust (“a detail of history”), about racism (in his words, there is “racial inequality”), about the Nazi military occupation of France (“there was no especially inhuman)…

Marine Le Pen, the youngest of three daughters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, once a legionnaire in Indochina (1953) and Algeria (1957), finished second in the 2022 presidential election (41.5%), in which he met with Emmanuel Macron. and dreams of becoming president in the next election.

Source: RES-IPE