NICE, France (AP) — At just 28 years old, Jordan Bardella has helped make the far-right Rassemblement National the strongest political force in France. And now he could become the country’s youngest prime minister.
After the voters Marine Le-Pen‘s National Rally to a strong lead in the first round of early parliamentary elections on Sunday, Bardella turned to mobilizing supporters to give their party an absolute majority in the decisive round on July 7. That would allow the anti-immigration, nationalist party to lead the government, with Bardella at the helm.
Who is the president of the National Rally?
When Bardella replaced his mentor, Marine Le Pen, at the helm of France’s leading far-right party in 2022, he became the first person not named Le Pen to lead the party since its founding half a century ago.
His selection marked a symbolic changing of the guard. It was part of Le Pen’s decades-long effort to rebrand her party, with its history of racism, and remove the stigma of anti-Semitism that clung to it in order to broaden her base. In particular, she has distanced herself from her now disowned father, Jean-Marie Le Penwho co-founded the party, then called the National Front, and who has been repeatedly convicted of hate speech.
Bardella belongs to a generation of young people who joined the party in the 2010s under Marine Le Pen, but probably would not have done so under her father.
Since joining at the age of 17, he has risen rapidly within the party, serving as party spokesperson and chairman of its youth wing. In 2019, he was appointed vice-chairman, becoming the second youngest member of the European Parliament in history.
“Jordan Bardella is Marine Le Pen’s creation,” said Cécile Alduy, a professor of French politics and literature at Stanford University and an expert on the far right. “He was created by her and is extremely loyal.”
During the campaign, Le Pen and Bardella presented themselves as American-style running mates, with Le Pen vying for the presidency while pushing him to become prime minister, Alduy said. “They are completely aligned politically.”
How did he become the figurehead of the movement?
It wasn’t just having a different surname that made Bardella an attractive prospect for a party seeking to broaden its appeal beyond its traditionally older, rural voter base.
Bardella was born in 1995 in the northern Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. His parents were of Italian descent, while his father had Algerian roots. He does not deny these roots, but uses them to soften the tone (and content) of his party’s anti-immigration stance and hostility toward France’s Muslim community.
Although Bardella attended a semi-private Catholic school and his father was moderately wealthy, party-approved accounts highlight his upbringing in a neglected housing project ravaged by poverty and drugs. Bardella never finished college, but his relatively modest background set him apart from the establishment.
What’s more, he could tell people about it directly — especially young voters. With more than 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 750,000 on Instagram, Bardella has found an audience for his slick social media content, which ranges from more traditional campaign material to videos mocking Macron and seemingly candid glimpses into the prime minister-elect’s life at the National Rally.
Sporting a clean-shaven look and social media savvy, he posed for selfies with screaming fans. While his rhetoric is strong on sensitive issues such as immigration — “France disappears” is his catchphrase — he is relatively vague on details.
What does he propose for France?
Bardella was the one who called on Macron in a message on X to dissolve parliament and call early elections, after the president’s centrist group suffered a crushing defeat by Rassemblement National in the European elections last month.
When Macron did so, Bardella, often dressed in a suit and tie, went out campaigning, toning down his pop star image to appear more of a statesman, despite his lack of experience in government.
In recent months, the National Rally has softened some of its most controversial positions, including scaling back some of its proposals for increased government spending and protectionist economic policies, and withdrawing France from NATO’s strategic military command.
Presenting the party’s new programme, Bardella said that as prime minister he would promote law and order, stricter regulation of migration and limiting certain social services, such as housing, to French citizens only. He said people with dual nationality would be excluded from some specific key positions, such as state employees in the defense and security sectors. He promised to cut taxes on fuel, gas and electricity and promised to reverse Macron’s pension changes. His law-and-order government would also extend to the country’s public schools, extending the cell phone ban to secondary schools.
Rivals say his policies could cause lasting damage to the French economy and violate human rights.
Internationally, Bardella has sought to refute accusations that Le Pen’s party has long been friends with Russia and President Vladimir Putin. He said he views Russia as “a multi-dimensional threat to both France and Europe,” and said he would be “extremely vigilant” against Russian attempts to interfere with French interests. While he supports continued deliveries of French weaponry to Ukraine, he does not want to send French troops to help the country defend itself. He would also not allow the sending of long-range missiles that could hit targets in Russia.
For voters on low incomes or who feel left out of the economic successes of Paris or the globalized economy, Bardella offers an attractive choice, Alduy said.
“The sense of vulnerability that people have to factors beyond their control requires a radical change in the minds of many voters,” she said. “He has a clean slate and comes without any baggage from the past.”
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Morton reported from London. Oleg Cetinic in Paris contributed.
