For years, the far-right National Rally tried to distance itself from Mr. Le Pen’s racist and antisemitic remarks. But after his death Tuesday, it hailed him as a visionary.

More than 1,000 people attended a memorial ceremony on Thursday in central Paris for the founder of France’s main far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier in January aged 96. The “mass for the repose of the soul” at Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grace church took place under tight security,

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 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.

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

The “mass for the repose of the soul” at Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce church took place under tight security, as Le Pen was a polarizing figure, convicted multiple times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.

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

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.