Jean-Marie Le Chevallier, here in December 2005, was mayor of Toulon between 1995 and 2001. -

PASCAL GUYOT / AFP

The former mayor of Toulon, Jean-Marie Le Chevallier, among the first National Front mayors elected in France in 1995, is dead, his successor LR Hubert Falco and a regional councilor of the National Rally said on Saturday.

"Jean-Marie Le Chevallier died of a heart attack last night [Friday], in Vendée, at the age of 86," said Toulon city councilor and regional councilor RN Amaury Navarranne in a statement.

I am devastated to tell you that my uncle Jean-Marie Le Chevallier died last night in Vendée.

Former mayor of Toulon, European deputy for 14 years & FN deputy in 1998, I cry for one of my mentors. His commitment, his experience, he had transmitted to me.

Peace to his soul .. pic.twitter.com/j8E5n1JBqm

- Erik Tegnér (@tegnererik) October 31, 2020

"It is always very sad to learn of the death of someone, regardless of the relationships that we may have had in the past," tweeted for his part Hubert Falco who had beaten Jean-Marie Le Chevallier during the municipal election of 2001. "Jean-Marie Le Chevallier had a vision of politics, convictions and ideas [...] diametrically opposed to mine", he added while stressing that the city "salutes memory "From its former" democratically elected "mayor.

In dissidence of the FN in 1999

Jean-Marie Le Chevallier was one of the first three candidates of the far-right party to win municipal elections in France in 1995 with Daniel Simonpieri in Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Jacques Bompard in Orange (Vaucluse).

"He was one of the symbols of the growth of the National Front in the 1980s," said Amaury Navarrane.

In 1999, he dissented from the far-right party then led by Jean-Marie Le Pen.

During his tenure, many controversies had erupted about his management.

The cultural center of Châteauvallon had to deprogram the rap group NTM "which undermines the dignity of women and mothers" according to the mayor FN.

Jean-Marie Le Chevallier had also taken over the Fête du livre and inaugurated in 1996 a “festival of the freedom of the book” giving a large place to the authors of the National Front.

Hubert Falco, who had beaten him in 2001, then claimed to have found the city's finances in a "lamentable" situation.

Municipal elections

Municipal 2014: The mistakes that the National Front will not make again in the conquered cities next Sunday

  • Marseilles

  • Society

  • National Front

  • Toulon