Former National Front party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen clenches his fist at the statue of Joan of Arc in Paris in 2017. Photograph: Kamil Zihnioglu/AP Born: June 20th, 1928 Died: January 7th, 2025 Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founding father of France’s modern political far right, who built a half-century career on rants of barely disguised racism, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi propaganda, has died. He was 96. An arm-waving reactionary with the swagger of a circus pitchman making outrageous claims, Le Pen ran unsuccessfully for the French presidency five times, making it to a runoff in 2002, riding waves of discontent and...