Over 1,000 people attended a memorial ceremony 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.

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.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of Marine Le Pen and the defining figure of France’s postwar far-right movement, has died at the age of 96, according to French network BFMTV.

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.

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,

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

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