>>19330Bardot shot to international fame in 1956 with And God Created Woman, written and directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim, and for the next two decades was said to have embodied the idea of the archetypal “sex kitten”. In the early 1970s, however, she announced her retirement from acting and became an outspoken campaigner on animal rights, and increasingly active politically on the far right.
Bardot’s incendiary comments about ethnic minorities, immigration, Islam and homosexuality resulted in a string of convictions for inciting racial hatred. French courts fined her six times between 1997 and 2008 for her comments, particularly those targeting France’s Muslim community. In one case, a Paris court fined her €15,000 (£13,000) for describing Muslims as “this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts”.
Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party (RN), which Bardot supported, wrote: “Brigitte Bardot was a woman of heart, conviction and character. An ardent patriot, devoted to animals that she protected throughout her life, she embodied a whole French era, but also above all a certain idea of courage and freedom.”
Le Pen, whom Bardot once described as “the Joan of Arc of the 21st century”, wrote on social media that Bardot was “exceptional for her talent, courage, frankness and beauty”. “She was incredibly French,” she said. “Free, indomitable, whole. She will be hugely missed.”
Such was Bardot’s role in the far right’s cultural pantheon that tributes were also paid to her from Italy’s government, where the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, called her “a timeless star, but above all a woman who was free, nonconformist, protagonist of courageous battles in defence of our traditions”.
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