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French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen leaves hospital

AFP/The Local
AFP/The Local - [email protected]
French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen leaves hospital
French founder of the Front national (FN) far-right party Jean-Marie Le Pen points his finger as he poses during a photo session at his home in Saint-Cloud on January 14, 2021. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)

Jean-Marie Le Pen, a far-right veteran whose daughter hopes to unseat France's President Emmanuel Macron in upcoming elections, was released from hospital Friday after a "minor" stroke, an aid said.

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"Jean-Marie Le Pen returned home in the middle of the day after his state of health was deemed satisfactory," his adviser Lorrain de Saint Affrique wrote on Twitter.

Le Pen, 93, was admitted to hospital late Wednesday as a "precaution" after he lost his vision "for a minute or a minute-and-a-half" during a dinner, the aid had said earlier.

The former leader of the National Front party for decades waged a nationalist battle against France's political establishment, accusing it of being too soft on immigration and of diluting French national identity.

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His biggest victory came in 2002, when he surprised most of France by outflanking the sitting Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin to reach the second round of the presidential vote, though he then lost to Jacques Chirac.

Today, his daughter Marine Le Pen has taken over his party, rebranding it the National Rally in a bid to distance herself from his provocative outbursts and alleged anti-Semitism.

She is running in the April presidential elections.

READ ALSO: French elections: 5 things you didn't know about Marine Le Pen

 

 

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Anonymous 2022/02/08 20:33
Why is this genocidal nazi being called a "leader" (in the headline)?

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