This weekend saw the election of Jordan Bardella as President of the Rassemblement National, succeeding Marine Le Pen as the first non-Le Pen family member to take the reins in the 50-year history of the far-right party.

Many have questioned whether anything would actually change, whether this was just a political move not dissimilar to the dance between Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev over in Russia, or if this would lead to a new direction for a party under pressure?

Firstly, who is he?

From a modest family of Italian origin, Jordan Bardella grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris, where he focused on studying economics and social sciences in secondary school. Eventually going to university to study geography, he dropped out of Paris-Sorbonne in order to focus on politics.

In 2012, at the ripe age of 16, he joined the then Front National (FN) “more for Marine Le Pen than the Front National”, eventually becoming the departmental secretary for the party in Seine-Saint-Denis in 2014 at the age of 19, becoming the youngest in the party.

From there on, the direction of travel was clear: he was a parliamentary assistant to FN MEP,Jean-François Jalkh, and became a prominent voice within the party when it came to discussion the topic of French Banlieues.

He ran in the 2015 departmental elections, making it to the second round before losing with a score of 41%, before running in the regional elections as head of list in Seine-Saint-Denis, and being elected to the regional council of Île-de-France.

Suffering a small speedbump during his 2017 legislative election loss, a succession of opportunities allows him to become party spokesperson, president of the youth wing, and at the age of 23, he was placed at the head of list for the 2019 European Parliamentary elections, which saw him elected as the second-youngest MEP in European Union history.

These successes, unhindered by his loss during the 2021 regional elections, enabled him to become the vice-president of the party, acting president of the Rassemblement National, and since Saturday President of the party with 84.84% of the vote.

What does he stand for?

Anyone hoping for a ‘positive’ change of direction under the new presidency will likely be very, very disappointed (and shame on you for having hope in 2022).

Sitting slightly to the right of Marine Le Pen, Bardella once outlined the two political priorities of “his generation”: The migrant crisis and the environmental crisis.

However, with him having previously raised the Great Replacement conspiracy theory during a debate, and having criticised the “punitive environmentalism” of the Macron government, his commitment to finding potential solutions to either of these issues is questionable at best.

He has also previously come out against same-sex marriage, claiming that it would lead to a rise in surrogacy and medically assisted reproduction, and has taking a very conservative position in many topics, including limiting social services for illegal immigrants to France.

He is a known ally of former Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, and has previously supported the far-right, fascist, Génération Identitaire, which was forcibly dissolved by the French government due to its inciting of hatred and violence, and the borderline militia-like activities that it undertook, which in many cases, took the form of training camps.

However, two things that will always remain at the core of his politics are, of course, immigration and national identity, which he underlined with remain the key building blocks of the RN’s programme.

To divide and conquer

To put it simply, this move is a part of the attempt to make the Rassemblement National more effective, and to reinforce its current position in French politics.

"Come with us on the road that leads to the conquest of power... we will succeed Emmanuel Macron” - Jordan Bardella giving his victory speech, 5 November 2022

Despite having sometimes expressed more radical views than his mentor, Bardella will be leading the party as a continuity candidate, showcasing his devout loyalty to his mentor by developping the Le Pennist line, and acting as a guarantor of her work.

Bardella can be expected to handle the more technical aspects of the party with his team, continuing the work of normalising the party in the eyes of the French public, all while also attempt to fight off any challenges from Eric Zemmour and Reconquête! (Remember them?), continuing to attempt to take a bite out of Les Républicains (who are expected to elect hard-right politician Eric Ciotti as their leader, all while continuing to make the party look attractive to young voters and politicians.

While he attempts to portray himself as a ‘new’ kind of nationalistic politician, similarly to Le Pen and her attempts to distance herself from her father and his racism and antisemitism, the reality is that these sentiments still exist within the party.

As you dear readers of mine are aware, last week saw a racist attack in the Assemblé National, where Grégoire de Fournas (RN) told Carlos Marten Bilongo (LFI) that he “should go back to Afica”

It would not be a surprise if we saw the Rassemblement National take a more identitarian position under his leadership than it did under Marine Le Pen, which will be the cost of fighting political battles on two side in order to become the dominant force on the right. Zemmour is continuing to attempt to force open a space for him in his party after two expensive disasters this year, and Les Républicains have vengeance in their minds after successive defeats.

He also recently parroted a policy from Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, by claiming that once they were in charge, “immigrant ships run by the mafia of people traffickers will not be allowed to dock in French ports”.

Regardless of this, however, Marine Le Pen will still have a big role to play within the party and is still expected to prepare for the next Presidential elections in 2027 where she will, in effect, be the party leader due to her seniority.

"I am not leaving RN to take a holiday. I will be there where the country needs me", she said to the party convention on Saturday, with a clear understanding of her role as a leader for the militants

She can be expected will handle the day-to-day political affairs in her role as the party’s leader in the Assemblée National, continuing to position and manoeuvre her team of MPs, and as a consequence, her party, in her quest to make the family business the dominant force on the French right, and to finally conquer the Élysée in 2027.

She will likely continue to have an influential role in the decision-making processes, with one of the most important decisions being on the list of candidates for the upcoming 2024 European Parliamentary elections, which will be the first major test after the 2022 presidential and legislative elections.

Whether she and her crown prince will succeed, however, is an entirely different story, and only time will tell whether this new leadership structure will help her to achieve her goals and the completion of her family’s political project.

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