Who is Jordan Bardella? National Rally elect 27-year-old to replace Marine Le Pen, why has she stood down?

Marine Le Pen announced she was resigning as leader of National Rally in the summer
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Marine Le Pen will be replaced by a 27-year-old politician as the leader of France’s leading far-right party.

Jordan Bardella has been elected as the president of National Rally at a party congress this weekend. He is the first person not named Le Pen to lead it.

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Le Pen has been the president of National Rally, the party started by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, since 2011. She ran for the French presidency three times, in 2012, 2017 and 2022, losing to Emmanuel Macron in the last two races.

Marine Le Pen announced earlier this year that she would not return to lead National Rally, formerly known as National Front, after contesting the presidential election. A leadership race began underway to replace her.

Jordan Bardella, 27, has been elected to replace Le Pen as leader of National Rally. It was announced that he would be the new face of the far-right party on Saturday.

The young politican faced competition from Louis Aliot, 53, who is the mayor of Perpignan and has been a senior official of the National Rally for two decades. But he was defeated in the vote at the congress.

Why has Marine Le Pen resigned?

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Marine Le Pen announced she would not be returning to her post as leader of National Rally during the summer. She said she wants to focus on leading the party’s 89 politicians in the National Assembly and is still expected to wield significant power in party leadership.

Le Pen lost to Emmanuel Macron on her third bid for the presidency this year, but won 44% of the vote, her highest score yet. Two months later her party won its most seats to date in the lower house of parliament.

Le Pen has gone to great lengths to remove the stigma of racism and antisemitism that clung to the far-right party, to soften its image and to broaden her audience. She has notably distanced herself from her now ostracised father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the party then called the National Front.

National Front has welcomed rising support for far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, and notably in neighbouring Italy.

Who will replace Le Pen?

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The two candidates who were vying for the presidency of National Rally are Jordan Bardella, 27, and Louis Aliot, 53. The contest came to an end on Saturday (5 November) at the party congress.

Bardella has been elected as the new president of National Rally.

Who is Jordan Bardella?

The 27-year-old politician is the younger candidate bidding to replace Le Pen. She is an outspoken member of the European Parliament and is widely tipped to win and become the first person to lead National Rally who does not have the Le Pen name since its creation 50 years ago.

Bardella has been the interim president of the National Rally since Le Pen entered the presidential race last year. He is from Drancy a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France.

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“Bardella is part of a generation of young, very young, people who engaged themselves behind Marine Le Pen in the 2010s and who probably wouldn’t have joined the National Rally during Jean-Marie Le Pen’s era,” political scientist Jean-Yves Camus said.

Mr Bardella supports the anti-immigration and protectionist line of the party. “Progress today is called localism. It’s called defending borders. It’s called protectionism,” he said in 2019, ahead of European elections, rejecting what he called “massive immigration”.

Who is Louis Aliot?

The 53-year-old is the mayor of Perpignan and has been a senior official of the National Rally for two decades. He is also a former romantic partner of Marine Le Pen.

He is the current vice president of the party. He became the mayor of Perpignan in July 2020, becoming the first time that National Rally had won a mayoral election in a city of over 100,000 people. According to Mr Camus, the party vote will not question Le Pen’s leadership.

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“The first impact of this election is that Le Pen won’t have to deal with the party and can focus on the most important thing, leading the party’s lawmakers in the National Assembly,” he explained.

For the past few months, 40,000 members of the party have been voting online to elect the new head of the party. The results were due to be announced on Saturday during the congress.

Aliot has argued that the National Rally needs to reshape itself to make it more palatable to the mainstream right. According to Mr Camus, the party vote will not question Le Pen’s leadership.

“The first impact of this election is that Le Pen won’t have to deal with the party and can focus on the most important thing, leading the party’s lawmakers in the National Assembly,” he explained.

For the past few months, 40,000 members of the party have been voting online to elect the new head of the party. The results were due to be announced on Saturday during the congress.

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