Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the French National Front party, has died at the age of 96.

Paris — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the opposition party in France, died on Tuesday at the age of 96, said the French news agency AFP, speaking to his family. Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died on Tuesday “surrounded by her loved ones,” the family said in a statement.

His daughter Marine Le Pen is one of the top figures in the group, now called National Rally, which has seen its support grow in recent years. The current president of the party, which goes by the French abbreviation RN, Jordan Bardella, confirmed the death of Le Pen in a statement posted on Tuesday on social media.

“He was always working for France, protecting its identity and sovereignty,” said Bardella. “Today I think with sadness about his family, his loved ones, and the Marines whose mourning should be honored.”

Le Pen sent shockwaves through France in 2002 when she reached the second round of the presidential election in an anti-immigration environment. He was often accused of racism and anti-Semitism, and shamefully dismissed the Holocaust as historical fact.

His daughter took over the leadership of the party in 2011 and ousted him after four years, seeking to distance himself from his reputation for extremism. The RN showed strong gains in last year’s European Parliament elections, and became the largest party in the subsequent general election in France.

Marine Le Pen said the National Rally “almost overwhelmed” President Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the summer election, taking almost a third of the vote in a major rebuke Macron’s government is in trouble.

He has a seat in parliament and is the leader of the RN bloc in the legislature.

I the new French government held after the summer elections – after a major shake-up – is on the center right, and although it does not include any members of the RN, the anti-immigration party founded by the leader Le Pen now has enough seats in the parliament to have a big influence on the country’s processes.