French far-right leader Marine Le Pen paid tribute Wednesday to her father Jean-Marie, the founder of the National Front party who died at 96, calling him a “warrior” in politics despite their notoriously harsh political disputes.

A polarizing figure in French politics, Le Pen was convicted numerous times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded France's far-right National Front party, died at 96 years old. Le Pen was a controversial and confrontational figure.

Through five unsuccessful runs for president, Le Pen espoused racist and antisemitic rhetoric that landed him in legal trouble in France.

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,

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.