After renaming the FN into RN, after having stored the bulky elements of her past in the back room, first and foremost her father, Marine Le Pen continues the transformation of the small family business. It’s the window’s turn to be completely redesigned. A perfect place for Jordan Bardella.
The man who has been president of the party for two years now serves as a flagship product with one objective: to make the far right sympathetic and trendy. More than the development of proposals, the European campaign seems entirely dedicated to the deployment of this new communication strategy to better “prepare for the alternation”.
For weeks, the Bardella product has been at the top of the polls. It must be said that “Jordan” is polite, young, smart. He masters all the tricks of traditional media, where he endlessly rehashes a self-taught storytelling more focused on the modest situation of his mother in Seine-Saint-Denis than on that of his father, business manager in Val-d’Oise. But it is especially on social networks that the Bardella product sells best.
A mandate marked by inconsistency
Through selfies, clips and compilation of his “punchlines”, he is progressing in the polls. A short format, particularly suitable for proposals that boil down to simplistic slogans and for a campaign promise far from European issues: transforming the June 9 election into Emmanuel Macron’s mid-term review.
The new RN window actually serves as a hideout. Behind Jordan Bardella’s 1.2 million TikTok subscribers and his 482,000 “followers” on Instagram lie the less glorious figures of his record: 70% absenteeism in his committee, no more than 21 amendments tabled and no report written. A mandate marked by inaction, but also by inconsistency.
If in his speeches the leader of the RN list wants to put an end to “massive immigration”, he opposed during this one the strengthening of Frontex staff. Agricultural floor prices? “Poverty traps”, according to Jordan Bardella. The measure had, however, been defended during the last two presidential campaigns by his party… We understand better why the candidate prefers the smartphones of his supporters to debates which could confront him with his contradictions.
We spare him all the confrontations
Contradictions which relate not only to substantive issues, but also to the very personality of Jordan Bardella. Seen closer, the window takes the form of more of a trompe-l’oeil and false advertising. His dubious friendship with the former president of the GUD Frédéric Chatillon, the accusations of racist and homophobic statements that he allegedly made on an anonymous Twitter account or even his doubts about the validity of the accusations of anti-Semitism against Jean-Marie Le Pen somewhat tarnish the image of the ideal son-in-law.
Despite everything, the RN candidate is taking off. Around 16 points ahead of its competitors, a gap which is unlikely to be called into question as it is spared all the confrontations. How can we preserve the security of Europeans in the face of current geopolitical upheavals? How does he intend to convince the 27 States to revise the texts which govern the functioning of the Union? What does he think of the accusations of pro-Chinese espionage targeting the AfD, an ally of the RN in Strasbourg?
Why did he vote for an amendment which makes “redistributive aid complementary to the income” of farmers optional and against another which obliges Member States to set maximum margins for all their intermediaries? Questions passed over in silence both by the media and by its competitors. Renaissance is entangled in a “at the same time” and an overly technocratic discourse. On the LR side, we refuse to risk new ideas by thinking of bypassing the June 9 vote. Five weeks before the vote, it is time for the right of government to wake up. May the scheduled debate with Gabriel Attal kick off a truly long-awaited surge in favor of Europe.
Jean-François Copé, former minister, mayor (LR) of Meaux.
.