The New Wave film star was known for her animal rights advocacy — and multiple convictions for “incitement to hatred.”
French far-right chief Marine Le Pen was one of the few politicians to attend movie legend Brigitte Bardot’s funeral on Wednesday.
Le Pen was spotted by French media arriving at a Catholic church in Saint-Tropez, southern France, where Bardot spent most of her later years before she died on Dec. 28.
The politician described her attendance as a “private and amicable” gesture to express her “affection, gratitude, and admiration” for the former actress and singer, who died aged 91.
Bardot rose to prominence as a star of French New Wave classics by cult filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard in the 1950s and 1960s.
Politically, she began backing Le Pen during her first presidential run in 2012, and her fourth and final husband, Bernard d’Ormale, was a former adviser to Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie.
While Bardot was widely known for her advocacy for animal rights, she also made headlines on several occasions for racist, Islamophobic and homophobic remarks — which earned her five separate criminal sentences for “incitement to hatred.”
While conservative and far-right figures flooded social media with glorifying homages after Bardot died — one of Le Pen’s allies, Éric Ciotti, even called for a national tribute, though Bardot’s own family opposed the gesture — reactions on the left were more nuanced, or absent.
French President Emmanuel Macron did not mention Bardot’s incendiary remarks in his eulogy — paying tribute instead to a “legend of the century.”