Snap elections in France have put a spotlight on the leader of its major far-right party. Who is he? And why is French politics in turmoil?
It is 2015 and Jordan Bardella, a baby-faced 20-year-old, is campaigning for a place in regional government among the hardscrabble housing estates in northern Paris.
Exactly what he and National Rally stand for these days is not entirely clear. Their policies are vague: the message is more about what they represent. Yet, thanks to a surprise election called for the end of this month, Bardella is, to plenty of people’s surprise, suddenly a genuine contender for prime minister.
Bardella qualified for university but dropped out, apparently, to focus full-time on politics. He joined the National Front when he was 16 and by 19 had become the party’s youngest-ever department secretary. The following year, he made his first tilt at public office, running in the 2015 departmental elections to represent the commune of Tremblay-en-France.
“He has the kind of fame you’d expect from a model, a reality TV star or a celebrity, even though he’s a politician,” Cassandra, a 17-year-old Bardella supporter, told a documentary by. Philippe Marliere, a professor of French politics at University College London, tells us about 30 per cent of the 18- to 24-year-old vote is drawn to Bardella. “Not all young people, not even a majority of them, are drawn to conservative values, but some of them, for sure. Probably more than in the past.
Macron then appointed Gabriel Attal, 35, who is France’s youngest modern prime minister, in an attempt to boost the party’s popularity and fight off rising populism ahead of the European elections. Those elections, however, were the final blow, leaving Macron with more disruption in the parliament and emboldening his critics, says Simon Tormey, a professor of European politics at Deakin University. “Macron is in his second term, and there is no third term,” he says.
In France, the president and prime minister share the duties of government, with the president ultimately having the upper hand. Macron has broad powers over foreign policy and national defence, can dissolve parliament and chooses the prime minister, although his pick does need the confidence of the National Assembly. “The prime minister comes from the majority,” says Fathi.
Should Macron be obliged to appoint Bardella, what might their “cohabitation” look like? “An incredibly tense one,” suggests Ben Wellings. Len Pen, meanwhile, has said that should National Rally win government it will be Bardella who will be prime minister. It is widely believed that her decision to promote him to party leader and to stand down from official party leadership herself is to clear the way for her own tilt at the presidency in 2027.
As for actual policies, the party initially opposed Macron’s controversial raising of the pension age from 62 to 64 in 2023, then appeared to walk this back after criticisms that reversing the change would have a dire effect on the French economy. However, in the lead-up to this election, Bardella has said he would introduce a repeal of the age increase by September, according toon electricity and gas bills from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
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