In 2013, young Front National militants gather in an apartment in Paris’ 13th arrondissement every Wednesday to learn the secrets of politics. In the back row, a tall, slender boy takes notes. Ever. Little sets him apart from the others, except perhaps two details: his impeccable attire and “the way he spoke, he spoke well. And that had an impact,” he recalled. Le Monde MEP Mathilde Androuët, then co-chair of the FN for youth. All because less than a decade later Jordan Bardella, now 27, was chosen to succeed Marine Le Pen in the leadership of the now-renamed National Union (RN). And after the racist controversy caused by an RN deputy in the National Assembly, his first task has already been found: to maintain order in his ranks.
The MEP who has assumed the interim leadership of the formation since September 2021, when Le Pen left to dedicate himself to the presidential campaign, taking 85% of the votes of the 26 thousand militants for the RN Congress , putting Louis Aliot, vice president of the party, in the way. , mayor of Perpignan and former associate of Marine Le Pen.
In his speech, Bardella said he was “humble” to his new position, he welcomed two women “without whom I would not be what I am today”, the mother “who raised me with difficulties” and Marine Le Pen to whom he owes “all credit”. He pledged to uphold the party’s line, recalling that “the French people are suffering a migration policy they have not chosen”, defending “a France that wants to emphasize the word “identity”. As for future elections, “the urgency is variety”.
This change should allow Marine Le Pen to focus on the National Assembly, where RN has the largest opposition group with 89 deputies. Le Pen should still be thinking about 2027 and a fourth presidential bid that his successor has already said he fully supports.
“After ten years, the time has come to give up the place,” said Marine Le Pen, guaranteeing that he will not leave the leadership to “go on holiday” – “I will be where France and the national cause need me “.
First party leader who does not have the nickname Le Pen (even if the family link exists, we go there) after the succession of Marine and her father, Jean-Marie, founder in 1972 of the Front National, which he chaired for four decades, Bardella the reins at a time when the current RN seems to be haunted by ghosts from the past. His deputies were the only ones left sitting when they voted for the temporary expulsion of Grégoire de Fournas, elected RN by the Gironde, after the wave of outrage caused by a racist diatribe directed by him against Carlos Martes Bilongo, from Insubmissa France (radically left ) . “Let him return to Africa” is the phrase of the controversy. Left says it was addressed to Bilongo, De Fournas guarantees he was talking about a boat carrying migrants. Controversy reminiscent of Father Le Pen’s incendiary statements against immigrants — a path Marine tried to avoid in an effort to normalize the party.
From neighborhood to top
But who is Jordan Bardella anyway? Born in a residential area on the Seine Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, to a family of Italian descent, the new leader of RN was raised by his mother in a residential area. And he likes to present himself as an example of social ascent, far from the privileged image of the Le Pens. At the age of 16 he became a militant of the Front National. And from there it goes up, not two by two, but four by four, the steps in the party hierarchy.
Over the years, he learns how to approach everyone who is at the top. First Frédéric Chatillon, close to Marine, even with his daughter, but when financial scandals dotted him, he turns to Philippe Olivier, adviser and brother-in-law of the leader, who begins dating his daughter, Marine’s niece. A relationship that continues to this day, finally leaving the RN in the family. Just not the family many would expect. All because Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, a former deputy and seen as the natural heir to Aunt Marine, after she retired from politics in 2017, not only supported Éric Zemmour, her far-right rival in this year’s presidential election, how he closed joins his Reconquista party, of which he is executive vice president at age 32.
Your secrets? He is a good speaker, he never lacks a sound bite. It’s elegant, telegenic, and the easy rhetoric has left even experienced ministers like Bruno Le Maire or Gabriel Attal speechless. He also has an attractive physique: “mothers want him as a son-in-law, women as a friend and men want to be like him”, summed up MEP Mathilde Androuët. An idea that Stéphane Ravier, Senator RN who went to the Reconquista, confirms to the Le Monde: “He says things that politically correct classifies as horrors and they pass calmly. Always in the same tone, with the same volume, with that ideal son-in-law style…”
As for ideology, those who know him guarantee that he is not interested at all. Former BFM-TV journalist Pascal Humeau, who worked with him on the 2019 European campaign, speaks of an “empty shell”, but emphasizes “he is a good student, he works. He has attitude, smile, all reflexes, he is very good at that”. Just as he has a memory for numbers, “arguments and quotes that impress”. Whether it impresses everyone in the party and voters on the far right remains to be seen.
Source: DN
