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 Thursday 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. The “mass for the repose of the soul” at Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church took place under tight security,

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s main far-right party and a polarizing figure in French politics, is being buried in a private family ceremony in his hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany.

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.

“History will judge” the legacy of far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron has said. The French president’s comments came as he and his government avoided any outright criticism of the late firebrand following his death on Tuesday aged 96.

Controversy was Le Pen's constant companion: accusations of racism and antisemitism dogged the National Front from when he co-founded the party.

Jean-Marie Le Pen espoused racist and antisemitic rhetoric that landed him in legal trouble in France, where Holocaust denial is illegal.

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.