During a debate between Jordan Bardella and Valérie Hayer, the head of the National Rally list repeatedly used attacks similar to those made a few years earlier by Emmanuel Macron, as spotted by the Quotidien program.
Similarities that have not gone unnoticed. Barely a month before the European elections next June, Jordan Bardella and Valérie, the two heads of the list of the National Rally and Renaissance, clashed during a debate on BFMTV, on May 2. For the occasion, several subjects were put on the table, from the anger of farmers, to Ukraine’s accession to the European Union or the migration issue.
“What is the project that you have for the French? You have a thousand facets Mr. Bardella, but in the end only one face, that of an imposter,” said Valérie Hayer to his political opponent. A dig to which Jordan Bardella did not take long to respond. “In any case, you are not the candidate of finesse this evening,” replied the MEP. This sentence is also reminiscent of another, pronounced almost word for word on May 3, 2017 by… Emmanuel Macron. During the debate between the two rounds of the presidential election, the current head of state had in fact launched this jab at his opponent at the time, namely, Marine Le Pen. The sequence, spotted by the show Daily and shared on X has already been viewed nearly 300,000 times.
Jordan Bardella was (greatly) inspired by the Macron-Le Pen debate of 2017 for his duel against Valérie Hayer. But not necessarily the person we would spontaneously think of pic.twitter.com/bJcETdN3YB
— Julien Bellver (@julienbellver) May 6, 2024
Other similarities
But that’s not all. On two other occasions, Jordan Bardella seems to have made the words spoken by the President of the Republic his own. Thus, while he was questioned about the influence of the European Union on the purchasing power of the French, the head of the RN list explained that he wanted to “get into the privacy of the issue”. Here again, in 2017, Emmanuel Macron offered his evening opponent similar words: “We can go into the privacy of the matter if you want,” he explained.
These similarities in Jordan Bardella’s statements with those of Emmanuel Macron caused several politicians to react, notably from the presidential majority. This is the case of Daniel Labaronne, Renaissance deputy for the 2nd constituency of Indre-et-Loire, who, on And added: “The future of France on the European scene deserves better than pale imitations. Using form will never replace an ambitious program.” Armelle Juliard-Gendarme, regional advisor (UDI) spoke of a “distressing” moment. For the moment, neither the National Rally, nor even Jordan Bardella have responded to the controversy.