Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right party that dealt a decisive blow to President Emmanuel Macron’s alliance in the European elections, is a charismatic 28-year-old celebrated by his followers as a transformative figure.
Marine Le Pen says Jordan Bardella will be prime minister if the extreme right wins the elections. Jordan Bardella, who assumed leadership of the National Rally (RN) in 2022, had a significant impact on the european elections when getting twice as many votes as President Macron’s centrist alliance.
“Our compatriots have expressed their desire for change,” Bardella said. “Emmanuel Macron tonight is a weakened president“.
Born in 1995 in a Parisian suburb, this son of Italian immigrants He has had a meteoric political career. Influenced by the violent riots in the French suburbs in 2005, He entered politics at the age of 17joining Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, now known as the National Rally.
Two years later, he abandoned his Geography studies to dedicate himself to politics. He went consecutively regional councilor, spokesperson, vice president of the partybefore heading the National Group list in the 2019 European elections at only 23 years old.
A meteoric rise in French politics
In November 2022, He was elected successor to Marine Le Pen as president of the extreme right party. The following year he was appointed, for the second consecutive time, head of the list of the National Groupand is expected to continue leading the party for many years.
Bardella has become the first person to lead the anti-immigration National Rally party who is not a member of the Le Pen family.
Marine Le Pen, who took over from his father in 2011, expelled him from the party in 2015 in an attempt to distance him from its more radical fringe and far-right.
Le Pen, who came second in the last two presidential electionshas remained the party’s leader in Parliament and is widely expected to run again in 2027.
But his young successor, who has more than a million followers on Tik Tokis proving to be an important asset for attract a younger audience to vote for the party.
The main candidate of the National Rally for the European elections, Jordan Bardella, advocated limit the free movement of immigrants through national border controls and reduce climate standards of the EU.
The party no longer wants to leave the EU and the euro, but weaken them from within. Aiming to occupy a significant position in Europe after the elections, Bardella has distanced his party from the German ally Alternative for Germany (AfD), declaring that they will no longer align with the faction in the European Parliament after a series of controversies.
A speech created to change the image of the far-right party
Bardella’s meticulously crafted narrative has contributed to refine the image of the political formation now called the National Group, a party once led by Jean-Marie Le Pen from a castle located in a wealthy suburb west of the capital. In a televised debate before the election, Bardella was accused of bringing about the end of the EU. Bardella replied: “I am not against Europe. I am against the functioning of Europe.”
Bardella is not particularly proactive in the European Parliament, as he has not initiated any parliamentary reports and is absent from 75% of his parliamentary committee meetings.
Bardella’s critics accuse him of spend too much time cultivating your image public, to the detriment of delving into crucial political issues. The European Member of extreme left Manon Aubry has described it as “ghost parliamentarian“, citing his frequent absence from the European chamber in the last five years.
This echoes the observations of Pierre-Stéphane Fort, an investigative journalist who has just published an unauthorized critical biography of the young politician. Fort describes Bardella as a chameleon.
“Change your mind very often and he is capable of saying the word right, but going left,” says the journalist.
“When he talks to young people, he is a kind of hero who defends women’s rights, who wants to fight against global warming. He understands that these are important issues for young people. However, when you look at his votes in the European Parliamentyou realize that does the opposite of what he says on social media. For example, on several occasions he refused to condemn the ban on abortion in Poland,” explains Pierre-Stéphane Fort.
After all, “the real boss is still Marine Le Pennot Jordan Bardella,” recalls the reporter.
ADVERTISINGThey work together, but “if Bardella became prime ministerI would consult him on all important day-to-day political decisions,” he says.
