He is 28 years old and is the new star of French politics. With enormous popularity among young people, Jordan Bardella He is considered largely responsible for the victory of the far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National/RN) in the legislative elections this Sunday.
His name headed the list of MEPs and his face was the visible figure of the campaign of the radical wing of the French right. President Emmanuel Macron, badly injured after the electoral setback, called for early elections, in two shifts, for June 30 and July 7. Now, Bardella’s name will once again be on the front line of the new electoral process that is approaching.
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The objective is clear: the party founded by the historic Jean-Marie Le Pen He will seek to make the move to assume power in France for the first time. How? If he manages to control Parliament, he will be able to impose a prime minister and a cabinet tailored to him. Macron would be reduced to a mere figure of state, but without any internal executive power. Presidential elections are scheduled for 2027.
Who is Jordan Bardella, the young promise of the French radical right
“We will take the place of Emmanuel Macron,” Bardella predicted last November 5 after being elected the new president of the National Group. His victory in the primaries was historic. In fact, he is the first leader of the former National Front who does not bear the surname Le Pen, that of its founder and his daughter and political heir, Marine Le Pen. But Bardella is very linked to the family dynasty: he is in a relationship with Nolwenn Olivierniece of her political mentor.
“He is a young politician who succeeded Marine Le Pen and who has followed her strategy of ‘dediabolization“of the party, which for a long time, during the leadership of Jean-Marie Le Pen, had far-right connotations close to what was collaboration with fascism during the Second World War or with the extreme right in the Algerian war” , said to TN the french analyst Yann Bassetprofessor of Political Science at the Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, figures of the French radical right (Photo: Reuters)By: REUTERS
In fact, Marine Le Pen expelled her controversial father from the party in 2015, then called National Front and which he himself had founded in 1972. Three years later he changed the name to National Groupin an attempt to clean up the bad image that had accompanied the movement in a large part of the electorate, especially due to the extreme and controversial positions of its father, such as his denialist statements about the Holocaust.
“Bardella is a different, young leader, who has made a great effort to show a calm and different image. This allowed the party to grow and achieve this victory with 30% of the votes” in the European elections, Basset stated.
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Born in Drancy, the outskirts of Paris, he is an only child. His mother, a public employee, emigrated to France in the 1960s from Turin, in northern Italy; His father, a small local businessman, is French, but his last name betrays his Italian ancestry. However, his paternal grandmother’s father was Algerian.
With unfinished geography studies at the Sorbonne, Bardella turned to politics from a very young age, at only 17 years old. His approach to the Le Pen family was prompted by his relationship with Jean-Marie Le Pen’s granddaughter and Marine’s niece, which led to some internal questions.
But its growth was meteoric. He first became a spokesman for the party after the 2017 presidential election. Later, he was spokesperson for Marine Le Pen and president of Generation Nation, the youth wing of the radical right. Shortly after, he became vice president of the party and arrived in the European Parliament in 2019. Today, he is president of the group and one of the most charismatic figures in national politics.
Its youth draws the vote of young French people, increasingly dissatisfied with traditional parties, as is happening throughout Europe and in much of the Western world. Today Bardella represents the renewal of the party. Marine Le Pen, the experience and the figure who pulls the strings of power. Now, it remains to be seen which of the two will try to reach the Elysée Palace in the near future.
“The idea is that Marine Le Pen is the candidate, but Bardella’s success could perhaps awaken her ambitions,” concluded Basset.
