The grave of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the co-founder of the country's main far-right party, has been vandalized, the Rassemblement National (RN) party said on Friday, January 31, denouncing an "unspeakable" act.

Le Pen, who stunned France by reaching the run-off of presidential elections in 2002, died on January 7 aged 96 after a career marked by openly racist and anti-Semitic views. But his death also prompted an outpouring of respectful tributes, not just from the party he used to lead – and which has undergone major change under his daughter Marine Le Pen.

An image posted by Marie Caroline Le Pen, another of his daughters, showed that the stone cross adorning the grave in La Trinite-sur-Mer in Brittany had been smashed into pieces.

"The desecration of Jean-Marie Le Pen's grave is an unspeakable act, committed by those who respect neither the living nor the dead," RN party leader Jordan Bardella said on X. "I hope that they (the perpetrators) will also be found and severely punished by the judiciary," he added.

Street gatherings had erupted in some French cities including Paris after Le Pen's death was announced, prompting right-wing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to warn against "dancing on a corpse".