The rising star of Marine Le Pen’s far-right party is taking his presidential ambitions to the corners of France that feel left behind.
As 26-year-old Jordan Bardella arrived in Oleron, an island off the west coast, on the morning of June 2, he shook hands, gave media interviews and talked with fishermen about their most pressing concerns — European quotas on their hauls and the rising price of fuel.
Officially, the visit was about promoting a local candidate for parliamentary elections that start on June 12. In reality, it was part of a campaign to raise his profile as head of the National Rally. And at the port at least, it appeared to be working.
“I am sure you will be our next president!” fisherman Benoit Lavaud, 33, shouted. “You are the only person I would go out to vote for!”
Bardella has been key in helping Le Pen reach more younger voters, especially in rural areas and suburbs. He’s been acting party leader since September when she stepped aside to focus on her third ultimately failed bid for the Elysee and she backs him as her successor. But criticism of his appointment has laid bare deepening divisions over the future of the party.
Two members, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said Bardella is too young and at times too radical, pointing to his use of language they say undermines Le Pen’s efforts to gloss over the racist roots of the movement founded by her father.
“Le Pen is trying to see how he passes with the rest of the electoral base,” said Marta Lorimer, an expert on the French far-right at the London School of Economics. “She might simply come back if she realizes that the party can’t survive without a Le Pen at its head.”
The legislative ballot presents a challenge for Bardella. Fresh priorities are likely to emerge, along with other potential successors, depending on how the party fares, according to the people.
The RN, as its known in France, is expected to win far fewer seats than either the parties supporting recently re-elected President Emmanuel Macron, which look set to maintain their position as the biggest bloc, or the alliance clustered around far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, that is projected to get the second-largest total.
But its gains will likely be enough to give it a formal legislative status, according to projections, for only the second time since the 1980s. That would allow it to influence committees and get a designated amount of floor time to air its views, an important step in the decade-long effort by Le Pen to bring the party to the center of French politics.
“What we want is to make the people enter the National Assembly and ensure our ideas are represented,” said Bardella, who isn’t running for a seat himself, after speaking with the fishermen. “I want our ideas to take power.”
Of Italian heritage, Bardella was born and raised in Seine Saint-Denis, a tough, poor and ethnically diverse Paris suburb, and dropped out of university to focus on politics. He rose quickly through the party ranks, becoming party deputy in 2019.
Bardella plays up his background and portrays himself as the polar opposite of the average French politician. He has helped Le Pen to “mainstream” the party since she took it over from her father, by focusing on surging living costs and re-framing its views on women.
“We had a woman as presidential candidate and we have a guy who’s 26 as an acting boss, which shows how modern and open minded we are,” says Louis Aliot, the mayor of the southern city of Perpignan and the party’s vice-president.
At the same time Bardella holds some views that even Le Pen has taken pains not to voice.
While Le Pen has distanced herself from comments about race, Bardella has portrayed immigration from Africa as a civilizational threat. That’s an allusion to the “great replacement” — a conspiracy theory once confined to racist far-right tracts that’s fueling deadly gun violence around the world. It’s championed by Eric Zemmour, who came fourth in the presidential election and has been sanctioned for hate speech.
“I agree with some of Zemmour’s views, I know the subjects he talks about because I grew up in a suburb,” Bardella said in a separate interview on Thursday, before adding “Zemmour doesn’t bring any answer to people’s problems.”
At the port, Bardella was followed by his official photographer, who is taking images as part of the drive to make him appear presidential, according to Le Monde newspaper. The visit, the first from a national politician in a long time, meant a lot, said Lavaud, the fisherman. “Macron’s people didn’t even come.”
Some party members don’t think the RN will do well in the legislative ballot, and they are lashing out at a system they say doesn’t reflect the people’s will. “It’s because the National Assembly doesn’t address people’s issues and ideas that people go out on the street,” Bardella said.
If he wins an internal party vote in the fall and is confirmed RN leader he will have two elections to prepare: for the Senate in 2023 and the European parliament the following year. Only then can he start focusing more on the presidential election in 2027.
“I hear the internal critics saying I’m too young but this won’t stop me. Napoleon said ‘we grow up fast on the battlefield,’” Bardella said, “and I have inherited Marine Le Pen’s resilience.”
