French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has paid tribute to her father Jean-Marie, the founder of the National Front party who died at 96, calling him a “warrior” in politics despite their notoriously harsh political disputes.

He co-founded what became France’s biggest opposition party, National Rally, rooted in deep anti-immigrant sentiment.

The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the party once known as the National Front, occurs at a time when the mainstreaming of far-right politics in France seems almost complete. Le Pen was,