He is young, charismatic and has Algerian-Italian roots. All of this makes Jardon Bardella a high-flyer in Le Pen’s right-wing populist party RN. He is the most popular politician in France. He is helped by half-truths about his childhood in a poor suburb of Paris.
A neat side parting, hazel eyes and dimples that frame a snow-white smile: Jordan Bardella looks good in photos. He is the new face of the right-wing populists in France. He is just 28 years old and has been chairman of the right-wing extremist Rassemblement National (RN) for almost two years. The party celebrates Bardella as its pop star.
This rapid career was made possible by his political foster mother, Marine Le Pen, who wants to see him in the office of Prime Minister after the new election in July. Putting Bardella in the front row of the RN was a clever move by Le Pen. He makes the party suitable for the masses. In interviews, Bardella remains vague on the content, but he makes political capital out of his immigrant background – in addition to the middle classes, he also convinces young French people to vote for the RN.
Bardella is followed by 1.6 million people on Tiktok. In the annual ranking of the most popular French people by the “Journal du dimanche” Bardella was ranked 30th in 2023. This makes him the most popular politician in France, ahead of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in 57th place. According to surveys, more people want toA third of the French will vote for the RN in the new elections on 30 June and 7 July.
“I am economically sensible”
Bardella is now also a popular guest on French television. He leaves nothing to chance. He choreographs everything, right down to his clothes. When he appears, he always checks whether the creases in his trousers are still in place. For official events, Bardella only wears suits from the Dutch brand Suit Supply, which is popular with right-wing young people, not least because of its low prices. This conveys not only self-confidence but also down-to-earthness. Another trick to appear down-to-earth.
In terms of rhetoric, Bardella relies on simple words and powerful formulas. In terms of content, he is a turncoat. A few days ago, he distanced himself from the RN’s election promises to reduce VAT on basic foodstuffs and to reverse Macron’s pension reform. “Economically, I am sensible,” said Bardella. This fits with Le Pen’s advice, which she is said to have given him shortly before he took office as party leader: “Be correct.”
Bardella is not politically correct, of course. He has been trying to appear moderate for some time. His previous statements reveal his preference for right-wing extremist conspiracy theories. He is said to be even more enthusiastic about identitarian ideas than Le Pen. Several French media reported years ago how Bardella spread conspiracy theories at his appearances. Bardella believes in the “great replacement” – a right-wing extremist battle cry used to attribute the immigration of non-whites to a conspiracy: the white majority population in western countries is supposedly to be replaced in this way.
Bardella calls on migrants to assimilate
In May 2022, for example, Bardella spoke at the CPAC, the meeting of American conservatives, about an “onrush to Europe” from Africa. A few weeks later, in Cavaillon in the south of France, he spoke in this context about the “question of civilization” and the uncertainty that would therefore spread “like the metastases of a cancer.” Bardella now avoids the term “great replacement.” Le Pen has banned the word. It no longer fits the new image of the connectable RN with the dynamic Bardella at the helm.
Bardella spreads right-wing extremist slogans, although he himself is the child of Italian immigrants. His father even has some Algerian roots. Bardella has spun a myth around his origins. He grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis, a poor working-class suburb of Paris. His mother was a single parent after the divorce, says Bardella. She earned very little money as an assistant in a preschool and lived with him in a social housing apartment. Bardella often tells the anecdote that he felt unsafe on the way home from school because drug dealers were hanging around in the stairwell.
He portrayed himself as a survivor who fled his dangerous home, from a settlement dominated by drug-related crime and radical Islam. A place he “cannot hate,” but which he condemns. “I am making politics for everything I experienced there. So that it does not become the situation throughout France. Because what is happening there is not normal,” said Bardella.
Bardella uses the stories about his childhood to convey a very condensed message: only those who assimilate in France – like him and his ancestors – are allowed to participate in society. His parents’ generation “worked hard and loved France”. Subsequent generations should follow their example and “not be exempted from these efforts”. This message also resonates in the migrant milieu in France, which is much more sympathetic to Bardella than to the RN leaders before him.
Bardella’s father financed his private school
Le Pen is also exploiting Bardella’s political career for her own ends. Her last name has now become a curse for her. After all, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, represents the anti-Semitic and openly right-wing extremist fundamental opposition of the party in its early years. He founded the RN in 1972. His daughter took over the presidency in 2011 before handing it over to Bardella. Her father’s radicalization stood in the way of Le Pen’s goal of becoming president. She therefore expelled him from the party in 2015. By hoisting Bardella to the throne in November 2022, she posed as a sponsor of an aspiring immigrant child from a poor background.
However, this myth omits important details about Bardella’s childhood. According to media reports, his father was wealthy enough to send him to a private school. He did not completely abandon his mother when it came to raising him. Bardella visited his father on weekends and every Wednesday in the wealthy community of Montmorency. He was even provided with an apartment there.
On Bardella’s 18th birthday, his father flew with him to Miami and gave him his first car, a Smart. His father owned a company that operated vending machines for drinks and sweets. Bardella worked for this company in the summer – outside of politics, it is the only job he has ever done. He also dropped out of college to devote himself entirely to the RN.
At the age of 16 he became a member of the party, which was then still called the “Front National”. At 22, Bardella became one of three party spokespersons. In 2019, Le Pen appointed him as the lead candidate in the European elections. This was followed by the party chairmanship. And Bardella is already setting his sights on the next step on the career ladder if the RN wins the majority in the new election: Prime Minister of France.