Paris (AFP)

Roger Holeindre, co-founder and historic figure of the National Front, died at the age of 90 on the night of Wednesday to Thursday near Paris, AFP learned on Thursday from the Party of France, of which he was president. 'honor.

This former military supporter of French Algeria and longtime friend of Jean-Marie Le Pen, with whom he co-founded the FN, died of a heart attack at his home in Vaucresson (Hauts-de-Seine), said AFP Thomas Joly, president of the Party of France.

Mr. Holeindre had followed Carl Lang there after having slammed the door of the FN in 2011 with the arrival of Marine Le Pen at its head.

"It is a standard of the French national right, which cofounded the FN and was of all the colonial struggles, wounded on several occasions", commented Mr. Joly. "He was a fighter until his death since we were to hold a political meeting with him next week in Paris," he added.

Co-founder in 1972 of the FN (which became National Rally in 2018), Mr. Holeindre was a member of the support committee for Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancourt, extreme right candidate for the presidential in 1965.

He was then part in 1986 (until 1988) of the group of 35 FN deputies who entered the National Assembly.

Former vice-president of the FN, he was particularly responsible for training the youth of the party and chaired a National Circle of Combatants which brought together veterans close to the FN.

Questioned by AFP, the former president of the FN Jean-Marie Le Pen greeted "a brother of heart, spirit and action" whose "all life was devoted to the defense of the fatherland". "He was a warm fellow and a faithful friend", "model of righteousness, will, courage, sacrifice", added Mr. Le Pen, who chaired the FN from 1972 to 2011 before being excluded from it in 2015.

His daughter Marine Le Pen paid "tribute" to Mr. Holeindre on Twitter: "Resistant to 15 years, metallurgical worker who volunteered for the Indochina War and the Algerian War, he had been one of the members founders of the National Front, and one of its deputies ".

MEP Louis Aliot and MEP Nicolas Bay, former FN vice-presidents, paid tribute to a "resistance fighter from the start". Bruno Gollnisch, close to Jean-Marie Le Pen, praised "a man, a real", "hero of all battles: Indochina, Algeria, adulated by French Muslims, whom he refused to give up".

According to historian Nicolas Lebourg, Roger Holeindre was "neither anti-Semitic, nor fascist but national populist, anticommunist, defender of French Algeria and of a certain idea of ​​the French empire".

He left the FN by reproaching Marine Le Pen for not wanting to "hear about the Occupation and the colonial wars" and for having "surrounded only" with homosexuals, according to an interview with authors Nicolas Lebourg and Joseph Beauregard from "In the shadow of Le Pen" (2012, New world editions).

© 2020 AFP