As French MPs voted on Wednesday to topple the government, a few thousand people gathered outside a cafe in northern Paris hoping to exchange a few words or perhaps take a selfie with the rising star of the French far-right.

29-year-old Jordan Bardela, Marine Le Pen’s “man”, is an MEP.

Therefore he was not in the French National Assembly yesterday with the other members of his party, the National Alarm, for the vote against the Barnier government.

Instead, he was about three miles away, surrounded by fans and signing copies of his first book, What I’m Looking For.

“It’s the book they don’t want you to read,” Bardella said during a tour to promote his book that coincided with the country’s second major political crisis in six months.

Le Pen was the driving force in toppling the Barnier government over the 2025 budget, which was judged by both National Alarm and the left to be too hard on the working class.

“I bought his book on the first day and read it in one sitting,” said Pierre Lecamy, 25, a former parliamentary aide to Bardela, outside the bookstore where the latter was signing copies.

“I come to encourage him in everything he does,” he adds.

Bad reviews

The reviews weren’t kind to him–“an object of marketing … without any introspection or revelation,” wrote Le Monde, but the book’s sales were good, with nearly 60,000 copies sold since its release on November 9. according to Europe 1.

However, none of the young people, who waited patiently in line in the bitter cold to meet their hero last night, seemed to be interested in the vitriolic criticism of the Parisian press.

They were more concerned about rising gang violence and immigration, issues that Bardella has made central to his political agenda.

“We want things to change and I think Bardella is the one who can achieve that,” says 18-year-old Eric Berthelot, who comes from a run-down suburb outside Paris.

As he says, he grew up surrounded by drugs, guns and stolen cars in a neighborhood with a large percentage of African immigrants.

You rarely saw a policeman, Bertello describes, and whenever security cameras were installed, they were set on fire.

A few years ago, a friend of his was stabbed to death, an innocent bystander caught in the middle of a violent confrontation between gang members.

“France welcomes all the wretchedness of the world. But those who come here do not respect our culture and want to destroy our country. This is unacceptable and must be punished,” he says.

“I know the ghetto,” explains 19-year-old student Louis Lassange, from a small affluent town outside Paris, adding that he too is worried about the rise in crime.

And he cites as an example the case of a 19-year-old Filipina mediator who was allegedly murdered in September by a Moroccan man who was about to be deported.

The National Alarm did not miss the opportunity and used this killing as revenge for the party’s calls for stricter immigration policy and to change the crime law.

Bardela has often cited his upbringing in poor and multi-ethnic Saint-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, as the origin of his political views.

Ismael Abri, 27, a janitor who wears a TRUMP pin on his lapel, explains that he grew up in a similar environment.

“I know the ghetto well and that’s how I understand Bardella. France needs hope. France must regain its national sovereignty”, he comments.