Father of France's far-right

Firebrand Le Pen dies at age of 96

- JEREMY ARMSTRONG

FAR-RIGHT architect Jean-Marie Le Pen, known for his thunderous attacks on immigration, delivered for years with a black eye patch, died yesterday at the age of 96.

For decades, the founder of France's National Front party was the nation's most controversial political figure, nicknamed the Devil of the Republic.

In a defining interview in 1987, he played down the Holocaust, the Nazis' slaughter of six million Jews.

"I do not say the gas chambers did not exist. I never personally saw them," he said. "I have never particularly studied the issue, but I believe they are a point of detail in the history of World War Two."

Those views would never be forgotten, when in 2002, he lost in a two-man runoff for the Presidency after supporters of the right and the left poured into the streets in a massive show of solidarity against him.

Jacques Chirac was returned to office with a record 82% of the vote.

The five-time presidential candidate claimed he was "ni droite, ni gauche, français" not right, not left, but French.

"Me? Racist? It's a gag, a gag," he said once. "But I'm not for the melting pot. I'm for the defence of one's culture. I'd despair if I found the culture of Brooklyn in France."