The French far right has appropriated in its own way the myth of Brigitte Bardot and has bid her farewell as "a fervent patriot." One of the most notable elegies after her death was the one paid by Jordan Bardella, the protégé of Marine Le Pen, who bid her farewell as "a woman of heart, conviction, and character" and as "the embodiment of a French era and a certain idea of bravery and freedom."
"The French have lost the Marianne they so loved, whose beauty amazed the world," added the young standard-bearer and potential presidential candidate of the National Rally (RN), in a nod to the republican nostalgia for better times often invoked by political extremes.
Marine Le Pen, whom BB herself praised in life as "the Joan of Arc of the 21st century" (and as "the only politician with balls"), bid her farewell on social media as "an incredibly French, free, indomitable, complete woman." Also exceptional for her "talent, courage, frankness, and beauty."
This Monday it was announced that Brigitte Bardot will be buried in the marine cemetery of Saint-Tropez, right next to her parents' graves, as confirmed by the City Hall, which did not specify whether there will be a private or public funeral. Bardot had previously expressed her wish to "rest" on her legendary estate of La Madrague. "I will be buried in the garden, in a small place near the sea that has been approved by the authorities," she declared seven years ago to Le Monde.
Brigitte Bardot's funeral will take place on Wednesday, January 7 at the church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Saint-Tropez, as announced by her foundation on Monday. The ceremony will be followed by "a private and confidential burial" reserved for the actress's close family and friends.
After the burial in the marine cemetery, there will be "an open tribute to all her admirers" in the area known as the fishermen's meadow. The question of whether the French cinema icon and animal rights activist deserves "a national tribute" is causing a great division among the French, between the support of far-right sympathizers and the apprehensions of the left who recall her five appearances in court for her racist comments.
BB's relations with the far right date back to the early 1990s when she hired Jean-Louis Bouguereau as the lawyer for her animal rights foundation. It was at a dinner organized by Bouguereau in Saint-Tropez in 1992 where the former actress met her fourth and last husband, Bernard d'Ormale, advisor to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front (FN).
Brigitte Bardot dies at 91, the spirit of an era and the ideal of woman against the ideal of woman
The films with which Brigitte Bardot conquered and seduced everyone
Already in the 1990s, Brigitte Bardot publicly supported the National Front's municipal candidates in southern French municipalities. In an interview in the far-right magazine "Presente," she spoke out against uncontrolled immigration: "One day we will be sacrificed, and we deserve it. A Muslim France, a Maghreb Marianne? Why not, given the point we have reached?"
On five occasions, between 1997 and 2008, BB had to answer in court for her racist comments, such as when she referred to immigrants from Reunion Island as "savages." In one case, she was fined 15,000 euros in Paris for calling Muslims "that population that is destroying us and imposing their actions on us." In a curious mix with her "animal rights activist" side, Bardot openly condemned the ritual sacrifice of sheep and the importation of "halal" meat.
In her last book, Mon BBcedaire ("My BBcedary"), published months before her death, she made it clear what her political creed was: "The [Le Pen's] right is the only urgent remedy to avoid France's agony." The country that now bids her farewell with pride and tears has, in her opinion, become a place that is "boring, sad, submissive, ruined, devastated, ordinary, and vulgar."
To Emmanuel Macron, who bid her farewell as "a legend of the 20th century," she once referred to in life as "an evil being who has turned France into a garbage can that serves as his throne." Needless to say, in the presidential elections of 2012 and 2017, she supported Marine Le Pen.
Her BBcedary also includes very critical references to gays, transgender people, and feminism embodied in her opinion by #MeToo ("a ridiculous, decadent, and uninteresting movement"). One of her most notable interventions this year was precisely in defense of Gerard Depardieu and "talented people who touch girls' butts."