To understand the RN’s standardization strategy, La Loupe retraces throughout the week the key stages of this transformation carried out by Marine Le Pen. And if she is forced to lay down her arms in 2027, the frontist leader is already preparing her succession… A story by Marylou Magal, journalist in the Political department of L’Express.
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Charlotte Baris: On January 7, Jean-Marie Le Pen died. A page is turning for French politics, but also for the RN, formerly National Front, which he founded in 1972. For more than a decade, it is his daughter Marine Le Pen who hopes to take the family political empire up to the supreme office. But the disappearance of the patriarch could trigger a change for the far-right party. Especially since the fall of 2024, legal cases have tarnished the image of Marine Le Pen and the RN. The party is suspected of having set up, between 2004 and 2016, a system of embezzlement of funds paid by the European Union. The indictment during this trial of the European parliamentary assistants is heavy. Five years in prison, two of which are closed. A fine of 300,000 euros, but above all five years of ineligibility with provisional execution. Which would prevent Marine Le Pen from running for president in 2027. So, while the Pas-de-Calais MP launches her counterattack, some are preparing behind the scenes.
If the conviction follows the indictment, the successor is ready. Even if the frontists are united and do not envisage a presidential election without Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella could benefit from an early handover, he who is already at the head of the party. And his growing popularity would designate him as the natural candidate of the RN in the 2027 presidential election.
To go further:
Yascha Mounk: “After the election of Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen has every chance in 2027”
Marine Le Pen and her trial, the Jordan Bardella circus: the tragicomedy in three acts that shakes the RN
Jordan Bardella, behind the scenes around his book: the war at Fayard, the control of Bolloré