The conviction of Marine Le Pen, coupled with her likely inability to participate in the 2027 presidential race to succeed Emmanuel Macron, offers a new perspective on the role of Jordan Bardella. As the current president of the Rassemblement National (RN), Bardella could be poised to take the lead as the party’s candidate, potentially replacing the long-established figure of Le Pen. But at only 29 years of age, does he have what it takes?
As the announcement of the verdict approached, polling institutes put Bardella’s name to the test to see if he enjoyed substantial popularity ratings. The results are clear among the members of the RN: 44% think that a presidential candidacy of Bardella instead of Marine would change nothing for the party. What’s more, internally, 60% of members are even in favour of Jordan Bardella over Marine Le Pen.
At the national level, the same survey reveals that, despite—or because of—the attacks she is subjected to, Marine Le Pen is the leading political figure arousing the most sympathy among the French, with an approval rating of 37%, ahead of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (36%). Jordan Bardella comes in just behind, in third position with 35% support. Other polls, this time conducted after the conviction, predict that he will come out on top in the first round of voting if he is the RN candidate.
How can this level of trust be explained?
Jordan Bardella entered politics a long time ago. He joined the party, then known as the National Front, at the age of 16, while still in high school. He then rose through the ranks of the party, distinguishing himself first as regional councillor for Ile-de-France, then, in 2019, as head of the list for the EU elections. This was where he made his first breakthrough: his list came out on top in the elections, ahead of the one supported by President Emmanuel Macron.
The 2022 presidential campaign gave him new opportunities to shine: on television, he enjoyed debating energetically with various competitors. His quick wit—a signature of the RN inherited from the Le Pens—hit the mark, as did his ability to remain calm in all circumstances, even in the face of the heaps of bad faith thrown at him by his opponents, both journalists and politicians. He exuded an impressive confidence, clarity of ideas, and unwavering determination. In November 2022, at the age of 27, he took a decisive step forward by being elected president of the RN with almost 85% of the vote. For the first time, the national right-wing party was no longer led by someone with the surname ‘Le Pen.’ Nothing seems to be able to stop this irresistible rise.
Although Bardella is racking up successes for his party and apparently making perfect progress within France’s leading party, certain failings or weaknesses of character are also causing reservations—both within his own camp and beyond it. He has been repeatedly attacked by Les Républicains in the European Parliament, notably by MEP François-Xavier Bellamy, accusing him of amateurism and absenteeism. His presence in the corridors of Strasbourg or Brussels is indeed relatively rare. The same goes for the Île-de-France Regional Council, from which he finally resigned in February. Not even Bardella can be in two places at once.
Beyond the relative seriousness with which he honours his elected mandates, it is his youth that is also cause for concern. Jordan Bardella was born in 1995—the year Jacques Chirac was first elected president. The French presidential election traditionally favours experienced candidates. In the French imagination, the President of the Republic, heir to Poincaré and De Gaulle, must be a sage. Macron, in his time, broke with tradition with his youth. But he was forty years old at the time of his election in 2017.
Bardella will turn thirty in September, and in those short thirty years, he will never really have had any experience other than that of being an apparatchik of the RN, with all the advantages and disadvantages that this entails. Despite his undeniable talent in front of the media, this youthfulness is inevitably accompanied by a certain form of immaturity, which we saw emerge at the time of the surprise elections in the summer of 2024. For a moment, he saw himself—or thought he saw himself—as prime minister, in the light of the polls that showed his party winning. He came crashing down when he had to face the extraordinary resistance of the republican front and the cordon sanitaire determined to prevent the national right from coming to power by any means possible.
On another level, the exact depth of his convictions raises questions. The newspaper L’Incorrect, which conducted an in-depth interview with him in a very personal tone, remains circumspect about his case. He is sometimes given the nickname ‘cyborg.’ He is cold, does not show any emotion, to the point that one ends up wondering if he can really get excited about anything.
His autobiography, Ce que je cherche (What I’m Looking For), published in November 2024 and instantly censored by the media and obstructed from proper advertising, allows us to learn a little more, but with the very polite and artificial character of this kind of exercise. We discover a young man who is genuinely passionate about politics—understood as a battle, rather than as a vision of the world to be defended. As the pages turn, it becomes clear that the conservative creed he proclaims lacks depth. Although he is not religious, he expresses his attachment to the Christian roots of France, but one senses an abstract attachment. The family—his family—is important to him, but he is part of a generation of young politicians who are not married and do not have children.
Unlike the party’s founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, he is a man who is attached to France but who is not nourished by an internalised culture that would give greater meaning to his commitment. Some even say that his new glasses are only a part of his disguise to appear stern and serious. Bardella becomes more convincing when he recalls the modesty of his social origins—he grew up in Seine Saint-Denis, and bears the first name ‘Jordan,’ typical of the middle classes of the 1990s for whom the American dream was the only exciting horizon. His first name earned him, he says, “mocking smiles and condescending remarks,” which helped harden his shell. What he experienced as a young man—immersion in a world dominated by African immigration—left a lasting impression on him and made him want to fight for something other than the disjointed multicultural society that was his daily reality.
Is there yet anything of the Hillbilly Elegy in Bardella? Not really. Vance tells the story of his life before reaching the pinnacle of his fame. Bardella’s account is a commissioned autobiography, the obligatory step for a man aspiring to the highest office. The challenge facing Bardella is immense. Now that Marine Le Pen has been condemned, she will fight back with everything she has and that her clan has passed on to her. Perhaps she will manage, in the very short time allotted to her, to turn the tables and ensure her presence in the 2027 presidential race. But nothing is less certain. In the meantime, Bardella has two years to mature and acquire that certain something, powerful and serious, that the French always expect in the figure they intend to place at the head of the State.
