Crowds attend Paris memorial for far-right French leader Jean-Marie Le Pen

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves Notre Dame du Val-de-Grace church after a public memorial for her father and late far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen (Thibault Camus/AP)

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, as Mr Le Pen was a polarising figure, convicted multiple times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence.