In a lengthy interview with Valeurs Actuelles, Rassemblement National (RN) president Jordan Bardella talks about the recent legislative elections, which he sees as a victory for his camp, but a personal defeat. There has been a shift in the balance of power within the national right party, with Marine Le Pen back in control at the head of her party’s parliamentary group.
At one point, the polls led Bardella to believe that he would end up residing at the Hôtel de Matignon. The momentum of the RN, in the wake of the European elections in which it finished as France’s leading party, gave every reason to hope. But the ‘party with the flame,’ as it is known in France, largely underestimated the power of the ‘Republican front’—this relentless mechanism that favours alliances between the Left and the centre to prevent the election of candidates labelled RN at all costs.
Bardella and Marine Le Pen’s party therefore finished the race with more than 11 million votes, but ‘only’ 126 MPs (142 with its allies), where it had hoped to potentially achieve an absolute majority. Yet the eventual prime minister did not come from the ranks of the RN, but from the Les Républicains (LR) party, in the person of Michel Barnier—even though his political family only came 4th.
Never before has the RN managed to send so many MPs to the National Assembly. As Bardella points out in the interview: “No other political movement in any Western democracy has ever achieved such results on its own.” For Marine Le Pen, who is used to hard knocks, this is a victory—incomplete, but a victory nonetheless. For Jordan Bardella, after the usual self-congratulations, the pill is bitter and he is downcast.
It is rumoured that since the summer the president has been a shadow of his former self and has been unable to resurface, perhaps because he was too soon, too high in the spotlight. A video that has gone viral shows him taking on a journalist who provokes him by reproaching him for “taking himself for a prime minister.” To which he responds that the man “is taking himself for a journalist.” The repartee is there, but the enthusiasm and energy have seriously diminished.
Jordan Bardella, who went so far as to plan a government in the event of victory, explains that he personally takes responsibility for any mistakes that may have compromised his side’s victory. With no pun intended, the scapegoat is obvious: rather than the strength of the cordon sanitaire, which is still holding firm, it’s the “black sheep,” those dubious candidates that the RN should never have endorsed—a “handful of candidates who have damaged the image of the overwhelming majority,” in Bardella’s words. The purge must continue, and Bardella intends to put all the energy he still has in reserve into removing them from his party. “When black sheep approach the Rassemblement National, my hand doesn’t tremble,” he explained during his party’s September seminar at the national assembly.
Since the elections, the RN has seen a clear takeover by Marine Le Pen, who heads her party’s parliamentary group in the national assembly. Whereas in recent months she had deliberately taken a back seat to her successor, who enjoyed a high popularity rating, she is now once again seen at his side during his speeches. The pair intend to launch what they call a “permanent campaign.” For them, the situation is clear: the Barnier government, formed by an ultra-minority political force, will not be able to continue in office, and they need to prepare for new elections.
The pillars of this preparation are the training of elected representatives; local anchoring—as for the municipal elections, which will take place in 2026—and work on the solidity of the programme, particularly on its ‘regalian’ aspect. The RN’s internal executives point to the party’s amateurism and lack of clarity in its line, which may have turned away many voters from the centre-right.
