Last weekend, France’s far-right National Alliance party got a new chairman, a 27-year-old Jordan Bardella. Described as a “rising star”, the MEP received almost 85 percent of the votes at the party meeting organized in Paris.
Bardella’s mother is an Italian immigrant and she grew up in the suburbs of Paris.
Bardella has told about his childhood in an eighth-floor high-rise apartment in the troubled Seine-Saint-Denis district. Bardella’s mother raised him as a single parent.
Bardella has said that he saw drug dealers every day.
According to him, there was an Islamic school across the road.
– I saw groups of 5-7-year-old girls who left with veils on their heads.
Bardella joined Marine Le Pen to lead the party for a long time at the age of 16. According to Bardella, the reason for entering politics was not only his own experiences, but also the events that shook France in 2005, when mainly young people of African and Arab background rioted against police violence.
– I didn’t want the whole of France to remember what I had experienced.
Bardella is considered a skilled performer and has done well in political debates. A polished Bardella almost always wears a fitted suit.
Bardella has served as the party’s acting chairman since Marine Le Pen stepped aside as party leader during her presidential campaign last fall.
In which direction does Bardella intend to take the National Alliance? The expert’s answer is clear.
– He won’t change anything in the party without Marine Le Pen agreeing. Bardella is the chairman of the party, but its real leader remains Le Pen. Thanks to him, Bardella became chairman in the first place, says a researcher specializing in the European extreme right Jean-Yves Camus To .
He heads the unit focused on political radicalism at the Jean Jaurés Foundation in Paris.
Marine Le Pen: “I’m not leaving the presidency to go on vacation”
The National Alliance, formerly called the National Front, was founded in 1972 by an openly racist and anti-Semitic Jean-Marie Le Pen. His daughter Marine Le Pen served as the party’s president since 2011.
Marine Le Pen is not receding into the background, on the contrary.
– I’m not leaving the presidency to go on vacation. I intend to be even more active than before, Le Pen vowed at the Paris party meeting.
At the same time, he said that neither he nor the rest of the party have time to rest until the course of France changes. He pointed out that he will continue to be there “where the country needs me”.
The fact that Le Pen no longer has to carry out the duties of party chairman gives her more time to focus on other issues.
Many believe that the only 54-year-old Marine Le Pen will still run in the next presidential election in 2027.
Le Pen also leads the party’s parliamentary group in the French National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. The national coalition got its best ever result in the parliamentary elections last summer: 89 seats.
Camus points out that Marine Le Pen is the one the French know.
– I believe that his goal is to work on his candidacy for the 2027 presidential election by leading the parliamentary group. Important things happen precisely in the National Assembly. Macron may also dissolve the National Assembly. It makes sense for Marine Le Pen to focus on parliamentary work and let Bardella lead the party.
Bardella is very loyal to Marine Le Pen
Bardella does not want to leave Marine Le Pen in his shadow. Bardella is very loyal to this and has described himself as representing continuity to Le Pen’s line. Some describe him as a creation of Marine Le Pen.
In addition to his mother, Bardella profusely thanked Marine Le Pen in his acceptance speech when he was elected president.
Marine Le Pen has been trying for years to distance the party from her father’s openly racist line. Bardella represents the more modern and controlled party that Marine Le Pen wants.
Bardella and Le Pen aim to continue the party’s desire to anchor itself in the political mainstream and to show that the party is capable of uniting the country and leading it.
– We are patriots who know what France needs as a revival, Bardella declared after his election.
He reiterated the party’s goals to fight first and foremost against immigration from outside Europe, for example by directing social support to French citizens.
– France should not act as a hotel for the whole world.
However, he also highlighted the desire to help citizens struggling with the rising cost of living. In the spring presidential elections, Marine Le Pen also focused on citizens’ purchasing power and left immigration themes more in the background.
Bardella has said his goal is to attract more supporters from traditional parties, both left and right.
The goal of a clean party came under fire right before the Paris party conference. The racist rant by a member of parliament from the National Coalition caused an uproar in the French National Assembly, which Bardella and Le Pen had to explain.
Camus estimates that the National Alliance can still increase its popularity. However, he still considers it a rather far-fetched idea that Marine Le Pen would win the presidential election in 2027, if she runs for office.
For Bardella, the presidency can be a springboard when Marine Le Pen finally moves aside from politics.
“Bardella’s public image has yet to be built”
Bardella is the first party leader not named Le Pen. According to newspaper reports, however, Bardella is dating Marine Le Pen’s niece.
Bardella likes to emphasize that he represents a new generation that has little in common with the ideas of party founder Jean-Marine Le Pen.
– The French still know very little about Bardella and he has yet to build a public image. It is interesting to see the first opinion polls about his popularity. Of course, it is possible that he will bring young supporters to the party, but it is too early to say, says Camus.
Camus does not consider Bardella more radical than Le Pen. He estimates that Bardella and Marine Le Pen are quite similar in their political ideology.
They share quite the same perception, for example, that it is very difficult to integrate immigrants from outside Europe into French society.
Critics say Bardella encourages white supremacist groups and emphasizes “us versus you” identity politics at the expense of talking about everyday economic issues that are more interesting to the working class.
Bardella has also not denied the theory of a “great population change”, about which, for example, the extreme right, known for its sharp opinions Eric Zemmour has spoken.
Population exchange is a conspiracy theory put forward by the extreme right, according to which white-skinned people will remain a minority, if not even become extinct, when people from the Middle East and Africa move to Western countries.
Sources: AFP, Le Monde, France Bleu