{"id":68387,"date":"2024-06-08T04:34:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T04:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/08\/jordan-bardella-the-new-face-of-frances-right\/"},"modified":"2024-06-08T04:34:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T04:34:05","slug":"jordan-bardella-the-new-face-of-frances-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/08\/jordan-bardella-the-new-face-of-frances-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Bardella, the New Face of France\u2019s Right"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/08\/multimedia\/08Bardella-France-01-vkft\/08Bardella-France-01-vkft-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Jordan Bardella, the New Face of France\u2019s Right\" title=\"Jordan Bardella, the New Face of France\u2019s Right\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">France has a taste for revolutions, and in the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, it has found a mild-mannered, impeccably dressed insurgent who vows to upend the politics of the country in order to save it from \u201cdisappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bardella, the president of the National Rally, is the cherished disciple of Marine Le Pen, 55, the perennial far-right presidential candidate. She once called him the \u201clion cub\u201d; now she calls him \u201cthe lion.\u201d A clean-cut, strong-jawed TikTok star, known for his love of candy, he has certainly shown a sure hand in the French political jungle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As European Parliament elections approach on Sunday, Mr. Bardella, who led his party\u2019s campaign, seems poised for a victory that could reshape French politics. An Ipsos poll published this past week gave the National Rally some 33 percent of the vote, more than double the 16 percent of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s centrist Renaissance party.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even if the effective power of the European Union\u2019s only directly elected body is limited, this would be a stark repudiation of the French leader. As elsewhere in Europe, the normalization of the far right has proceeded apace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is as if a fractured France, weary of politics as usual and anxious about its future, has abruptly discovered a more acceptable version of the xenophobic politics that long cast the National Rally as a direct threat to French democracy. It has helped that Mr. Bardella is young, possesses a reassuring showmanship and does not bear the name Le Pen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Indeed, his success has been such that a leadership battle looms. For now, Ms. Le Pen and her prodigal son are a hugging and seemingly harmonious duo (Mr. Bardella dates Ms. Le Pen\u2019s niece Nolwenn Olivier). But Mr. Bardella\u2019s popularity is such that there is a possibility the wunderkind will eclipse his maker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen retains the stubborn hope of becoming president in 2027, when Mr. Macron\u2019s term ends. She has said she would make Mr. Bardella her prime minister if she became president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe moderate conservative right is dead in France, and, for the first time, it is possible that the National Rally will come to power,\u201d said Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist who studies nationalist movements in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Raised by his mother, an Italian immigrant, in the projects north of Paris, Mr. Bardella marks a break from the cookie-cutter technocrats formed in elite schools who have dominated French politics. He has recast \u2014 some would say sugarcoated \u2014 the angry message of the nationalist right so effectively that there is talk of \u201cBardellamania.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOur civilization can die,\u201d Mr. Bardella told a crowd of more than 5,000 flag-waving supporters this past week, as chants of \u201cJordan! Jordan!\u201d reverberated around a vast arena in Paris. \u201cIt can die because it will be submerged in migrants who will have changed our customs, culture and way of life irreversibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bardella\u2019s campaign director, Alexandre Loubet, said that in the event of a clear victory for the National Rally, the party \u201cwould demand the dissolution of the National Assembly\u201d and new elections. \u201cIf Mr. Macron has a minimum of respect for the will of the French people,\u201d Mr. Loubet said, \u201che would do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Macron, who is term-limited and has three more years in office, is unlikely to do any such thing, no matter the outcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Mr. Bardella\u2019s telling, always delivered in a level tone, Mr. Macron has brought France to the abyss through rampant immigration, a lax approach to lawlessness and violence, the loss of French identity, and \u201cpunitive\u201d ecological change that makes life unaffordable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEverything is going from bad to worse,\u201d said Alain Foy, a concierge who attended Mr. Bardella\u2019s rally in Paris. \u201cSometimes I can\u2019t believe what is happening, whether on immigration, purchasing power, insecurity, everything.\u201d His sister, Marie Foy, added, \u201cFrance is falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Foy said that in the past, anyone disagreeing with the National Rally would quickly label Ms. Le Pen a racist or a fascist. \u201cBut with Bardella,\u201d he said, \u201cthe good thing is that he thinks the same, but they can\u2019t call him a racist because he\u2019s an immigrant child of Italian parents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The exact nature of Mr. Bardella\u2019s upbringing in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb is unclear. He has portrayed it as a childhood of unrelenting hardship in projects afflicted by drug dealing and violence, where you could be killed for refusing someone a cigarette, and where his mother, who separated from his father when he was 1, struggled to make ends meet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">However, Mr. Bardella attended a private school, the Lyc\u00e9e Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Salle, where the fees were paid by his father, who had a small business renting coffee and vending machines, said Pascal Humeau, who was close to Mr. Bardella for many years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bardella proved to be a good student with strong political convictions, and in 2012, at age 16, he enrolled in the party he now leads, which was then called the National Front. He had interned for a week with the local police precinct, an experience that appears to have contributed to his political orientation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was not a working-class upbringing, that\u2019s clear, but nor was it privileged in any way,\u201d Mr. Camus said. Although he had graduated with distinction from high school, Mr. Bardella dropped out of college to focus on politics, essentially the only work he has done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With his deliberate manner and his charismatic good looks, he was quickly identified in Ms. Le Pen\u2019s entourage as an ideal representative of a reinvented National Rally, stripped of the anti-Semitic invective of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who called the Holocaust a \u201cdetail\u201d of history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Le Pen, intent on bringing her party into the mainstream, pushed him forward. Mr. Humeau, a former journalist, became Mr. Bardella\u2019s media trainer in 2018. In him, he discovered a \u201crather sad young man, repeating Ms. Le Pen\u2019s formulas, an empty shell, very controlled, but knowing little of what was happening in France or the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bardella was, however, a quick study. He learned to smile and appear more relaxed, retaining an air of \u201cconsensual humility\u201d before eventually becoming what Mr. Humeau called \u201cthe media beast of today who scares his opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To what end, I asked? \u201cHe has had one objective since the age of 17 \u2014 to become prime minister and president,\u201d Mr. Humeau said, \u201cand I don\u2019t think anyone can derail him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If Mr. Bardella has contrived to present a softer face of the National Rally, then there is little or no evidence that his own views or the party\u2019s have moderated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mass immigration \u2014 some <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/eurostat\/web\/products-eurostat-news\/w\/ddn-20240327-1#:~:text=In%202022%2C%205.1%20million%20people,estimated%202.4%20million%20in%202021.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">5.1 million immigrants entered the European Union in 2022<\/a>, more than double the number the previous year \u2014 is the core issue in the European election, polls show, along with the struggles of French families to make ends meet as the war in Ukraine has driven up energy and food prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In this context, the National Rally has successfully portrayed itself as the home of French patriotism, the party of people reasonably concerned that immigration is out of control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">With his Italian background, Mr. Bardella has been able to argue that the issue is not immigration itself, but the refusal of many migrants to assimilate. On the left, the very word patriotism in France tends to be viewed skeptically, a first step to nationalism and even war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The benefits that immigrants can bring to societies with shrinking labor forces and tax bases are generally overlooked. Instead, the focus of the right is on migrants, particularly North African Muslims, benefiting from handouts and changing the looks, habits and cultures of urban neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have the courage and lucidity to say that if France becomes the country of everyone, it will no longer be the nation of anyone,\u201d Mr. Bardella said this past week. \u201cWith the deregulation of migration, totalitarian Islamism does not only give its fanatics an order to separate themselves from the French Republic, but also to conquer it, in order to impose its laws and morals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bardella has accused Mr. Macron of wanting to expand the 27-member European Union to 37 members, including the Turkey \u201cof the Islamist\u201d President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and of intending to give up France\u2019s veto over E.U. foreign policy decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Turkish E.U. accession talks have in fact long been frozen, and Mr. Macron\u2019s attachment to French sovereignty is fierce. The mildness of Mr. Bardella\u2019s tone can mask a readiness to bend the truth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has tried, with vague evasions, to play down his party\u2019s longtime closeness to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a policy now revised, despite the repeated pro-Russian votes of his party in the European Parliament. It voted in 2021 against a resolution in support of Ukraine\u2019s \u201cindependence, sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d for example.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If Mr. Bardella has been campaigning by raising the specter of the \u201cdeath\u201d of France, Mr. Macron has also been speaking in apocalyptical terms of late, warning of the \u201cdeath\u201d of Europe if it does not achieve \u201cstrategic autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The difference is that Mr. Bardella believes salvation lies in less Europe, not more. The European elections will also be a bellwether of the European idea itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI worry that people won\u2019t vote for Ms. Le Pen because of her name, with her father and all,\u201d said Jacky Laquay, a retired factory worker who recently attended a Bardella rally in the north of France. \u201cBardella embodies the future of France.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Certainly, Mr. Bardella appears unlikely to disappear from the political scene soon. \u201cAt 28, he has 40 years of political life in front of him,\u201d Mr. Camus said. \u201cThat\u2019s not nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/08\/world\/europe\/jordan-bardella-france-eu-elections.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France has a taste for revolutions, and in the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, it has found a mild-mannered, impeccably dressed insurgent who vows to upend the politics of the country in order to save it from \u201cdisappearance.\u201d Mr. Bardella, the president of the National Rally, is the cherished disciple of Marine Le Pen, 55, the perennial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/08\/multimedia\/08Bardella-France-01-vkft\/08Bardella-France-01-vkft-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64091,2086,5238,16783],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68389,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68387\/revisions\/68389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}