PARIS >> Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right National Front who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism that earned him both staunch supporters and widespread condemnation, died Tuesday. He was 96.

One of the most polarizing figures in French politics, Le Pen made Islam and Muslim immigrants his primary target, blaming them for economic and social woes. He also repeatedly denied the Holocaust and was convicted multiple times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.

Despite those convictions and eventually being politically ostracized, the nativist ideas that propelled his decades of popularity — encapsulated in slogans like “French People First” — are ascendant in today’s France, across Europe and beyond. Le Pen — who reached the second round of the 2002 presidential election that Jacques Chirac went on to win in a landslide — was eventually estranged from his daughter Marine Le Pen. She renamed his National Front party, ousted him and transformed it into one of France’s most powerful political forces while distancing herself from her father.

Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, as the party is now known, confirmed Le Pen’s death in a post on social media platform X.