MEP Jordan Bardella has become this Saturday the new leader of the French far-right National Rally party and takes over the baton from Marine Le Pen, who has decided to step down to focus on the formation’s parliamentary activities with a view to future elections.
Bardella, acting president since 2021 and considered in his beginnings a radical element of the party, has obtained 84.4% of the votes against the mayor of Perpignan and historic of the party, Louis Aliot, a percentage much higher than the 67.65% of the votes that Marine Le Pen obtained against Bruno Gollnisch to succeed her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, eleven years ago.
Marine Le Pen will now focus on the leadership of her party’s parliamentary bloc, the largest force in Parliament since the June elections, with 89 seats.
Bardella’s victory means that the party is left without a Le Pen at the head of the destiny of the formation since its founding as the National Front 50 years ago, but it is given the circumstance that the MEP, 27 years old and standard-bearer of anti-immigration movements, maintains a relationship with Le Pen’s niece.
