Once called the 'most hated man in France', Le Pen maintained that his ideas were simply 'ahead of their time'

Over 1,000 people attended a memorial ceremony in central Paris for the founder of France’s main far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last week at the age of 96.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded France's far-right National Front party, died at 96 years old. Le Pen was a controversial and confrontational figure.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French far-right political party the National Front, has died aged 96, a senior party official has announced.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French far-right nationalist party formerly known as the National Front, was buried on Saturday. Le Pen died on Tuesday at the age of 96. Around 100 police officers were on duty for the funeral in La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany.

A Holocaust denier and unrepentant extremist on race and immigration, the far-right politician has died at 96.

Le Pen was convicted numerous times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence. But the nativist ideas that propelled his popularity remain ascendant in today's France and beyond.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s National Front who ran for president five times and lived to see his anti-immigrant rhetoric go mainstream, has died. He was 96.Most Read from BloombergNYC’s Subway Violence Deters Drive to Bring Workers Back to OfficeDutch Central Bank Restores Amsterdam’s ‘Ugliest Building’Can American Drivers Learn to Love Roundabouts?

The church Notre-Dame du Val de Grace, in Paris, has been the scene of the tribute with a religious ceremony to the founder of the French National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died last Tuesday at the age of 96.

Ceremony held for late French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen Watch more on Independent TV: The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking newsbrand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded.