Jordan Bardella was elected president of France’s main far-right party, Rassemblement national, on Saturday and succeeds outgoing leader Marine Le Pen, who came second in the French presidential election in April.
The day after the temporary exclusion of the RN deputy, Grégoire de Fournas at the origin of a racist session incident in the hemicycle on Thursday, the National Rally has just designated the name of the successor to Marine Le Pen to chair the party. At a congress being held this Saturday, November 05 in Paris, it is no surprise that Jordan Bardella was elected by the activists, reports Pierrick Bonnoof the political service, of the Maison de la mutualité in Paris.
Jordan Bardella, visibly very moved on stage at the announcement of the result, won with nearly 85% of the vote against Louis Aliot, the mayor of Perpignan, a party history. He is the first leader of this party outside the Le Pen family dynasty: Jean-Marie Le Pen founded the National Front in 1972, which became the National Rally under the baton of his daughter Marine Le Pen.
Pure product of the RN
There was little doubt about the outcome of this internal election because Jordan Bardella, very popular among the activists who voted, was supported by the vast majority of RN executives. At 27, he is the symbol of this new generation arriving in politics.
But under his air of ideal son-in-law, the new president of the party is the holder of a rather radical line, in particular on the question of national identity. Jordan Bardella is a pure product of the National Rally: regional councilor at 20, MEP at 23, he owes his meteoric rise in politics to one woman: Marine Le Pen. This is his foal: with Jordan Bardella at the head of the RN, Marine Le Pen will thus be able to keep control of the party.
The roadmap of the new president of the party: take his training to victory in four and a half years, at the next presidential election. For that, Jordan Bardella will have to continue the work of demonization, of normalization of the party, but with the incident of Thursday in the Assembly, he leaves with a big pebble in his shoe.