Marine Le Pen's Pop Star Ally is Jordan Bardella
This young, charismatic individual with mixed Algerian-Italian heritage, Jordan Bardella, is quickly gaining prominence in Marine Le Pen's conservative party, RN. He is currently the most popular politician in France, a position that Le Pen aims to keep secure for him, hoping to see him in the forefront of RN and potentially as Prime Minister post the upcoming elections in June and July.
Bardella's good looks, with well-groomed hair, hazelnut-brown eyes, and endearing dimples, radiate from his photos. At just 28 years old, he has been leading the extremist Rassemblement National (RN) for nearly two years. The party views Bardella as their pop star.
Marine Le Pen played a crucial role in Bardella's meteoric political journey. Positioning Bardella at the forefront of RN was a strategic move by Le Pen. He adds a more mainstream image to the party. In interviews, Bardella keeps his responses vague on substance but taps into political capital using his migration background, winning not only the middle classes but also young French voters to the RN.
On TikTok, he boasts 1.6 million followers. In "Journal du dimanche's" annual ranking, he ranked 30th in 2023, making him the most popular politician in France, even surpassing the incumbent Prime Minister Gabriel Attal who ranked 57th. As per polls, over a third of the French voters favor the RN in the upcoming elections on June 30 and July 7.
"Economically, I am balanced"
Bardella is a frequent television guest. He meticulously plans every appearance, checking the creases on his trousers and wearing only suits from the budget-friendly Dutch brand Suit Supply for official engagements. This not only exudes self-confidence but also a sense of stability, helping him connect with the right-wing youth.
Rhetorically, Bardella keeps things simple and forceful, yet substantively, he's a flip-flopper. Recently, he backtracked on previous election promises by the RN, such as lowering the value-added tax on essential goods and repealing Macron's pension reform. "Economically, I am reasonable," Bardella noted about this, which aligns with Le Pen's advice she reportedly gave him before his tenure as party chairman: "Be realistic."
Politically, Bardella may not be correct. For some time now, he's been trying to appear moderate. In the process, earlier statements reveal his leaning towards right-wing conspiracy theories. He has been reported to spread conspiracy theories during his appearances. Bardella believes in the "great replacement" – a right-wing slogan that refers to the alleged replacement of the white majority population in Western countries through immigration.
Bardella referred to an "assault on Europe" from Africa during the CPAC meeting in May 2022. A few weeks later, he spoke about the "civilizational question" and the unwelcome uncertainty spreading like cancer metastases in Cavaillon, France. Recently, Bardella avoids the term "great exchange." Le Pen has banned the term. It no longer matches the new image of the RN with the dynamic Bardella at its helm.
Bardella promotes far-right ideologies, despite his own multicultural background. His father even had partial Algerian roots. He has crafted a narrative around his origin, claiming to have grown up in a tough working-class neighborhood in Paris. He tells heart-wrenching anecdotes of feeling insecure on his way home from school due to drug dealers lurking in the building's passageways. He portrays himself as a survivor who escaped from his dangerous environment, vowing to ensure that such conditions aren't normalized for France as a whole.
Bardella's father funded his private education
Le Pen leverages Bardella's political journey for her own gain. Ultimately, it's Bardella's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who financed Bardella's private school education, according to media reports. He had the means to do so, leaving his ex-wife with little involvement in raising their child. Bardella would visit his father every weekend and on Wednesdays in the affluent community of Montmorency, where he was provided residence.
For Bardella's 18th birthday, his old man whisked him off to Miami and bestowed upon him his initial set of wheels, a Smart car. His pops ran a biz that handled those soda and candy vending machines you see around. During the summers, young Bardella pulled a shift for this company, marking it as his sole job. Plus, he kicked college to the curb to concentrate wholeheartedly on the RN.
At 16, the kid joined the party, then referred to as "Front National." By 22, Bardella became one of the three party mouthpieces. In 2019, Le Pen announced him as the key candidate for the European elections. Subsequently, he seized the party leadership. Now, if the RN bags the upcoming elections, Bardella has set his sights on another rung on the career ladder – the Prime Ministership of France.
Read also:
- Emmanuel Macron, the current President of France, has often criticized Marine Le Pen and her party, RN, due to their embrace of right-wing populism, which Le Pen's right-hand man, Jordan Bardella, strongly represents.
- In the 2023 French elections, Marine Le Pen's party, RN, which has grown significantly under Bardella's leadership, has gained substantial support from the French populace, causing concern for centrist politicians like Emmanuel Macron and his party.
- Despite his father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, financing his private education and his populist rise within Marine Le Pen's party, Jordan Bardella has gained popularity among French youth due to his carefully crafted narrative of overcoming challenges in his working-class Paris upbringing, aligning with the right-wing populist sentiments present in many parts of France.
