Jordan Bardella was elected on Saturday as the new party chairman of the French political party Rassemblement National (RN, until 2018 Front National). Bardella, 27, won 84.84 percent of the votes cast by party members online. This was announced at the party congress of the radical right party in Paris, AFP news agency reported.
Bardella’s ideas on security, immigration and Islam are consistent with Marine Le Pen’s current program. She will focus on leading the RN faction in the French House of Commons. Le Pen is expected to run for president again in 2027 after three previous attempts — a candidacy Bardella says he welcomes.
After Jean-Marie Le Pen (who founded the Front National in 1972) and his daughter Marine Le Pen (who succeeded him in 2011), Bardella is the first party leader from outside the Le Pen family. The RN MEP has a relationship with a niece of Marine Le Pen, Nolwenn Olivier, and has been interim party chairman since September last year.
The RN has a history of anti-Semitic and other racist statements and ideas. Recently, the MP Grégoire de Fournas was discredited when he shouted “back to Africa” to his fellow MP Martens Bilongo last Thursday.
Also read this profile of the new RN party chairman: Bardella is being called a ‘cyborg’ behind the scenes