The fresh face of France's far-right

Bardella, 28, credited with pushing National Rally mainstream, toward victory at EU elections

- ALLAN WOODS

Jordan Bardella, lead candidate of the National Rally for the upcoming European elections, is the smiling face of a party that is leading in opinion polls among both the working and professional classes, the rural and city dwellers (with the exception of Paris), the elderly and the young.

Through that tinted lens of France’s far-right movement, theirs is a country where Muslims and African immigrants wander the streets stabbing and raping innocent French victims, one in which French culture is on the brink of extinction, and where it’s easier to find a Middle Eastern kebab restaurant than it is a crêperie.

France is a nation in steep decline, to borrow the words of Donald Trump.

Once a fringe view, this take has made its way into this country’s mainstream, to the benefit of the ultra-conservative party expected to emerge triumphant in Sunday’s European elections. Those elections will see voters from 27 countries elect members to a five-year term in the European Parliament. Polls are predicting a historic finish for the National Rally, the French anti-immigration party led by Marine Le Pen.

But it is Le Pen’s hand-picked 28year-old deputy who is being credited for taking France’s far-right further than it has gone before at the polls.

Jordan Bardella is the smiling face of a party that is leading in opinion polls among both the working and professional classes, the rural and city dwellers (with the exception of Paris), the elderly and the young.

Given that Sunday’s election is for the European Parliament, and not for the French presidency or legislature, some are inclined to view the results as a barometer of French President Emmanuel Macron’s popularity — a message three years out from the country’s next presidential election in 2027.

But there are signs of a solidifying shift in the country’s political culture.