Jean-Marie Le Pen, the historic leader of France's far right, died on Tuesday aged 96, his family told AFP.

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Le Pen, who had been in a care home for several weeks, died at midday (1100 GMT) Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones", the family said in a statement.

Le Pen, the co-founder of the National Front, sent shockwaves through France in 2002 when he made it to the second round of the presidential election on a staunch anti-immigration platform.

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He was often accused of racism and anti-Semitism, and infamously dismissed the Holocaust as a detail of history.

His daughter Marine Le Pen took the party's leadership in 2011 and booted him out four years later, seeking to distance her movement from his extremist reputation.

The party, since renamed National Rally (RN), has made significant inroads.

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It showed strong gains in last year's European Parliament elections, and became the largest single party in a subsequent general election in France.

Jordan Bardella, RN party chief and the right-hand man of Marine Le Pen, said in a carefully-worded tribute that Jean-Marie Le Pen had "always served France".

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"As a soldier in the French army in Indochina and Algeria, as a tribune of the people in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he always served France and defended its identity and sovereignty," the 29-year-old said on X. 

"Today I am thinking with sadness of his family, his loved ones, and of course of Marine, whose mourning must be respected."

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