Le Pen Deputy Bardella to Run for French Presidency if Controversial Court Ban Against Leader Is Upheld

Jordan Bardella, the president of the French populist National Rally party, has confirmed that he will stand in the next presidential election if the ban against his long-time mentor, Marine Le Pen, from running is upheld.

Last month, a Paris court controversially ruled that three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen should be barred from standing for political office for five years after it ruled she had misused European Union funds for her National Rally party in France. Critics have hit back at the ruling, calling it politically motivated, in that the practice rightly or wrongly is fairly common practice in Brussels and appears to be selectively enforced based on political leanings.

While Le Pen has launched an appeal and a judgment is expected by next summer, it is unclear if she will fare better in the Court of Appeals in her bid to overturn the result before the 2027 presidential election to replace Emmanuel Macron, in which she currently stands as the undisputed frontrunner.

In an interview with Le Parisien, the president of the National Rally and Le Pen’s protégé, Jordan Bardella, confirmed over the weekend that he would throw his hat in the ring as a “plan B” if the ban is confirmed.

“At this moment, we have the urgent need to stay united. There is no ambiguity about the fact that Marine Le Pen is my candidate, and that if she were to be prevented tomorrow, I think I can tell you that I will be her candidate. I can’t be clearer than that,” he told the paper.

Despite only being 29 years old, the precocious Seine-Saint-Denis native is far from a political neophyte, having become the youngest ever department secretary in the history of the Le Penist party at the age of 19. Bardella steadily rose through the ranks and has been at the side of Marine Le Pen since 2017, when he served as a staffer on her presidential campaign. He would go on to become one of the youngest people ever elected to the European Parliament at 23.

In 2022, he was elevated to president of the party and was widely credited for running a successful campaign in the 2024 European Union elections, in which the National Rally trounced President Macron’s Ensemble to such an extent that Macron was shamed into calling for snap legislative elections in France in a failed bid to re-establish his government’s legitimacy.

Bardella has since continued to build on his brand, launching a successful book tour across the country, which reportedly attracted many young followers, as he recounted his impoverished upbringing in a migrant-dominated suburb of Paris.

The campaign blitz, in conjunction with his cool and confident demeanour, has catapulted Bardella to the very top of the French political scene. An Ipsos survey from January found that, except for Le Pen, Bardella had the most support of any politician in the country to become the next president of France.

While many would have seized upon the opportunity, Bardella remains steadfastly loyal and appears content to wait his turn, cautioning that Le Pen remains innocent until proven guilty at the appeals court and that the party intends to fight to prove her innocence.

“I won’t make the mistake of pushing myself up. I consider that when Marine is attacked, I am attacked too. We will continue to work together, hand in hand, in the interest of the movement, our ideas, our political family.”

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