Tomb of polarizing French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen vandalized just weeks after his burial

PARIS — The tomb housing the remains of Jean-Marie Le Pen was vandalized less than three weeks after the polarizing far-right French leader was buried.

Authorities in the Brittany region of western France said they were informed of the damage Friday and that police were investigating.

The founder of France’s far-right National Front, who was known for fiery rhetoric against immigration and multiculturalism, died Jan. 7. He was 96. He was buried in a Le Pen family tomb in the small Brittany port of La Trinité-sur-Mer.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau denounced the damage as “an absolute abjection.”

“Respect for the dead is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism,” he posted on X.

Brittany authorities said in a statement that “given the political sensitivity," the cemetery had been the focus of stepped-up police surveillance in the days immediately before and after Le Pen's burial on Jan. 11. But the security was subsequently scaled down, the statement added.

It said police patrols of the site will now be stepped back up again “given the exceptional nature” of the attack.

Le Pen's extreme views won him staunch supporters but also widespread condemnation. He repeatedly denied the Holocaust and was convicted multiple times of antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence. He made Islam and Muslim immigrants his primary targets, blaming them for economic and social woes in France.