Police are investigating after the grave of Jean-Marie Le Pen, godfather of the French far right, was vandalized during the night between Thursday and Friday.
A police source told French newspaper Le Figaro on Friday that the cross on the Le Pen family tomb, located in the cemetery in La Trinité-sur-Mer in northwestern France, had been destroyed with a sledgehammer.
A picture published by the newspaper shows that the headstone and monuments honoring the family were also damaged.
Le Pen’s granddaughter Marion Maréchal, leader of the far-right Identité Libertés party, lashed out on social media. “You’ve destroyed the grave of our ancestors. Do you think you can break our hearts, intimidate us, discourage us?” she said, adding: “Our response will be to fight you ever harder, generation after generation.”
Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally, called it “an unspeakable act.”
“The desecration of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s tomb is an unspeakable act, committed by those who respect neither the living nor the dead. The most universal morality already condemns its authors: I hope that they will also be found and severely punished by justice,” wrote Bardella.
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau also condemned the act. “The defacement of the tomb of the Le Pen family in La Trinité is absolutely despicable. Respect for the dead is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism,” Retailleau said.
Le Pen, who died at the age of 96 on Jan. 7, was the longtime face of the far right in France and became notorious for his hate speech and Holocaust denial convictions. He founded the National Front political party, ran unsuccessfully for president multiple times, before being succeeded in charge by his daughter Marine Le Pen.
Hundreds of people celebrated his death in the streets around France earlier this month, drawing criticism from the interior minister.
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