Jordan Bardella, who has been acting as head of the National Rally for a year, emerged victorious this Saturday from the ballot organized among the 40,000 claimed activists of the far-right party co-founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Pen. For the first time in its history, the National Rally will be led by a “non-Le Pen”, even if Marine Le Pen will remain its boss with a view to 2027.
The MEP born in Seine-Saint-Denis joined the National Front in 2012, which became the National Rally under the leadership of Marine Le Pen. Jordan Bardella was especially revealed during the presidential campaign through televised debates where his ease and his skill sometimes put experienced opponents in difficulty. Popular with the militant base, Jordan Bardella praises his “singular relationship of invaluable trust” with Marine Le Pen, to whom he regularly swears fidelity and loyalty. But he is presented by some executives as “the creature” of the boss of the French far right.
His enthronement was still a little disturbed by the exclusion of RN deputy Grégoire de Fournas, elected from Gironde, after the wave of indignation aroused by his remarks deemed racist by an RN deputy for remarks deemed racist.
“I am not leaving the presidency of our movement to go on vacation” assures Marine Le Pen
With this appointment, Marine Le Pen will free herself from sometimes thankless internal tasks, while the epicenter of the RN is now in the National Assembly, where the MP for Pas-de-Calais shines on a group of 89 elected officials and consolidates more than ever its political and media base. Relieved of the stewardship of the RN, in particular of the thorny financial equation, she will be able to refine a fourth presidential candidacy in five years, which no one in the party dares to question. During her speech to the congress on Saturday morning, Marine Le Pen declared that she “is not leaving the presidency of our movement to go on vacation”. “For the future, for the movement as for France, it goes without saying that I will be where the country and the national cause will need me”, she assured.