Both Le Pen and Zemmour did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
Eric Pauget, a lawmaker for the right-wing Les Republicains Party, told France’s National Assembly on Tuesday that Lola had been “martyred” due to France’s weakness on immigration.
“But because of the weakness of the Republic, she lived pain, torture, barbarism in the middle of Paris, due to the laxity of your immigration policy, this child was martyred, raped, killed by an illegal, who nevertheless had the obligation to leave the French territory,” he said.
Replying to Pauget, Dupond-Moretti said: “To play petty politics, to use the coffin of a 12-year-old girl as a stepping stone, it is a disgrace. Do not add to the most absolute atrocity, the unworthy trade of demagogue.”
Government spokesman Véran told a news conference Wednesday that the executive should “obviously do better” on enforcing orders for foreign nationals to leave France.
The French Interior Ministry declined to comment.
Marta Lorimer, an expert in far-right European politics at the London School of Economics, said the story was “almost the ideal case for the far right to instrumentalize.”
“They can leverage the threat of migration and say there are too many immigrants and we need to kick them out. And it taps into issues of security,” she said.
She added that while Le Pen played down the anti-immigrant aspects of her program during the election in order to appeal to center-right and lapsed socialist voters, a news story like this “allows her to go town.”
France has seen the sharp rise of far-right politics in recent years, with the National Rally, formerly the National Front, establishing itself as one of Europe’s premier far-right populist parties, mixing anti-immigrant rhetoric with strong support for public services.
Le Pen came within 17 points of beating Macron in April’s elections — the closest a far-right populist party has come to winning power in the country.
The party bounced back from that defeat to take 89 of 577 seats in June’s parliamentary elections, receiving protest votes from traditional left- and right-wing voters tired of Macron’s pragmatic centrism.
Elie Petit contributed.