“Young, handsome far-right is looking for votes”. The reason for her 28-year-old “chosen”. Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardellapresident of the National Alarm, which Politico in its analysis presents as a product.

Is Jordan Bardela the ‘new face of Europe’? asks Politico in its analysis. It presents him as a doll in a Barbie package with the box saying “Perfect smile, perfect style! Far right but influential Boy Band! (boy band)” is characteristically mentioned about… Barbiela as many call him.

“The French despise their politicians. Newlyweds enjoy short “honeymoons” before they inevitably “wither” under the spotlight. Just a quarter of French people have confidence in their government or the National Assembly, according to a recent poll.

Then there’s Jordan Bardella. The president of the far-right National Rally has weathered nearly a decade in politics, including five as his party’s most prominent member of the European Parliament, without ever losing his luster.

As his party’s main candidate for next week’s European Parliament elections, the 28-year-old is dominating his rivals in the polls. Almost a third of French voters plan to vote for National Rally – giving a party once seen as too toxic twice as much support as its nearest rival, French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party.

“Shiny” put together down to the last detail, Bardella has become a TikTok hit, with boy-next-door good looks and a carefully practiced smile to attract youth votes. When the French weekly JDD published a list of the 50 most popular personalities in France, Bardela was the only politician to make the list.

Bardela’s popularity, and the simultaneous rise of the far right across the Continent, represent a potential shift in European politics, as the protective walls that once kept out nationalist, Eurosceptic parties like the National Rally crumble.

Six of the European Union’s 27 governments, including Italy’s, include parties that would once have been considered far-right. The Netherlands is about to join the ranks of this list. While a strong performance in June’s election will not propel the National Rally to the Elysee, the vote is nevertheless widely seen as a barometer ahead of 2027, when the party – likely led by its longtime leader Marine Le Pen – will again run for the seat. presidency.

In previous elections, French voters rallied to keep the far right out of power, erecting a so-called “firewall” to keep the far right out of power.

Political observers believe that this is no longer certain. If the National Rally sweeps the next presidential election, it will partly be because of an attempt to reposition itself as a safe, “palatable” alternative to the traditional parties of power – an effort personified in Bardelas.

The making of a far-right leader

With his immaculate suits and well-coiffed hair, the far-right candidate has built a far-right fan base that greets him with an ecstatic “Jordan!” in his election campaign and watches his dimes, his “well-considered” jokes and his talk shows on social media. French newspapers ran headlines such as “Bardela superstar”, “the transformation of the far right”, “brilliant populism” and “the Bardela trap”.

Despite the fact that the media and political opponents criticize him for a superficial understanding of the issues, he is steadily widening the gap between himself and Valerie Hayet, Macron’s running mate. It helps that his campaign tactics read more like a “boy band on tour” than a serious campaign, involving endless TikTok posts and selfies with fans.

Le Pen has described Bardela as a “godsend” in her bid to politically “detox” her party’s reputation and prepare it for power. “She is not affected by the taboo surrounding the Front National vote,” she said, referring to the party’s former name, which was associated with her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, a Holocaust denier. “He’s part of a new generation.”

Bardela and Le Pen worked hard to rebuild the image of the National Rally. In another attempt to differentiate herself from the most extreme elements of the far right, Le Pen distanced herself from the far-right Alternative for Germany and instead reached out to Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, a far-right leader who has successfully executed a shift to the center of European politics. scene.

But the change is mostly aesthetic, commented Jean-Yves Camus, a far-right expert at the Paris-based think tank Fondation Jean Jaurès. While the National Rally has shed its most toxic features, such as the elder Le Pen’s anti-Semitism, its agenda remains the most radical in France, especially when it comes to international organizations.

“Their watchword is national sovereignty and they refuse anything that would infringe on the sovereignty of the people, and that means the EU and NATO,” Camus commented. “They don’t want the International Criminal Court, nor the European Court of Human Rights. They want to break up the EU from within.”

Meanwhile, his critics in recent years have questioned the 28-year-old’s picture-perfect story, pointing out that his father was relatively well-off, able to afford him tuition at a good private school and holidays abroad.

Bardella was also accused in January of secretly posting racist comments on social media when he was a district councilor in 2016. He has denied the charges.

Faced with certain defeat, Macron’s allies are already working to play down its potential impact. They say Bardella is popular, but a passing fad. “It’s the protest vote, gathering votes because we’ve been in power for almost ten years,” commented a member of parliament from Macron’s Renaissance party.

Undoubtedly ambitious, the young politician is certainly familiar with the history of the party. “It’s in his best interest to wait … but deep down, I think he’s preparing himself,” said the same councilor.

And given his broad appeal and pro-business stance, there are some in the party who believe he could be the man to really take charge of the party’s fortunes in 2027, especially if Le Pen is unable to be voted out after a swing trial for embezzlement.

But there are more who believe he is more likely to be the loser of any clash with the woman who ‘made him’ politically and who continues to lead the party with an iron fist, as few would follow him in ditching Marine Le Pen.

In other words, in a clash with Le Pen and her political displacement, Bardela could risk seeing his star fall to Earth.