"Of the dead, nothing but good is to be said," saida close associate of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a few hours after Pope Francis' death on Monday, April 21. Le Pen, leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, withheld her usual criticisms of the pontiff to offer him a reserved tribute. "Death of the pope. A spiritual figure has passed, leaving behind a legacy of faith, peace, and dialogue. Thoughts are with the Catholic community mourning his passing," she wrote on X.

Her second-in-command, Jordan Bardella, was slightly more verbose, emphasizing the deceased pope's "constant attention to the forgotten and the dignity of the most vulnerable." Meanwhile, MEP Marion Maréchal, Le Pen's niece, whose far-right Identité-Libertés party is affiliated with the RN, stuck to the bare minimum. "Pope Francis has gone back to God this Easter Monday. Peace to his soul," she declared.

Throughout his papacy, in which he prioritized welcoming migrating people, Pope Francis became a key target for far-right attacks. "That he demands states to go against the interests of peoples by imposing no conditions on the reception of significant migration, to me, falls under politics and even interference, since he is also the head of a state," Le Pen had sharply said, in a 2017 interview with La Croix, railing against the man who had chosen Lampedusa for his first papal trip in 2013 and washed the feet of a group of migrants on Holy Thursday in Rome, in 2016.

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