Jordan Bardella expressed this Saturday his “recognition” and his “pride to work with” Marine Le Pen, “but above all for her and by her side”, during his first speech as president-elect of the RN, a post to which he succeeded the three-time presidential candidate. With nearly 85% of the vote, the 27-year-old MEP won easily against Louis Aliot. At the end of a congress held in Paris, the new number one paid tribute to his mother, an Italian naturalized French citizen, but above all to Marine Le Pen, “to whom I owe what I am” and who “made him discover the Politics”.
“She gave me a taste for commitment”
The young man stops, lets a tear run down his cheek, then takes a deep breath, leaning back slightly, his eyes half-closed, while the room applauds wildly. “She gave me a taste for commitment”, he corrects himself half a minute later, swearing his “recognition, but also (his) pride in working with her, but above all for her and her sides”. A way of responding to the trials of excess ambition that some of his detractors make him, or of divergence with the “Marinist” line, which he rejects.
Jordan Bardella, however, gave a nod to his right fringe by castigating “a France that would like to make identity a swear word”, while his acquaintances with “identities”, in particular those close to Eric Zemmour, are denounced by his opponents. But, developing the fetish themes of the far-right party, the fight against immigration in the lead, he wanted to reassure by affirming the need to “walk on our two feet by occupying the entire political spectrum, by worrying about the concern end of the month as well as the vital urgency of the end of France”.
Support for MP Grégoire de Fournas
The appearance of a rally was however undermined as soon as his election was announced on Saturday noon, when Steeve Briois, a figure of the party, denounced in a vitriolic press release “a stunting” of the party “now sensitive according to him to ” right-wing positions”. Without answering him directly, Jordan Bardella called for a “respectful and friendly attitude” from all.
On the other hand, he unambiguously supported the deputy Grégoire de Fournas, RN deputy excluded from the Assembly after having made remarks deemed racist, when Marine Le Pen had taken care on Saturday to silence the embarrassing affair. “The professionals of selective indignation manipulated a statement that evoked the logical return of illegal ships to the ports of origin,” defended Mr. Bardella unreservedly.