The Most Notable Obituaries of 2025 |
The year’s best stories
From Pope Francis to former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, this year saw the deaths of some significant figures in world affairs. Foreign Policy considered their lives and legacies with in-depth analysis and commentary.
Below are five notable obituaries from 2025.
From Pope Francis to former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, this year saw the deaths of some significant figures in world affairs. Foreign Policy considered their lives and legacies with in-depth analysis and commentary.
Below are five notable obituaries from 2025.
By Michele Barbero, Jan. 7
“In February 1984, Jean-Marie Le Pen appeared for the first time on France’s biggest political TV show, L’Heure de Vérité (The Hour of Truth),” Paris-based journalist Michele Barbero writes, and reporters asked about “the avowed antisemites and former SS members who filled his party’s ranks” and “his support for the dictatorships of Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet.”
But in Barbero’s telling, these efforts to expose Le Pen’s darkest views fell flat. Instead, hundreds of people lined up the next day outside the National Front party’s offices, and “[a] populist star was born.”
Barbero follows Le Pen’s journey along the acceptable........