Who is Jordan Bardella, 28-yr-old Marine Le Pen protégé who could be France's next PM?

The European Parliamentary elections sent a shudder through the establishment.

The surge of the right-wing in France, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands is already having an impact.

Emmanuel Macron, whose centrist coalition suffered mightily at the hands of far-right National Rally (RN), has called snap elections in France – much to the dismay of many including some in his own Renew party.

The RN is headed by Marine Le Pen, who was runner-up in the last two presidential elections and is largely expected to run again in 2027.

But it is Le Pen’s protégé Jordan Bardella, who led the RN campaign for the European Parliament, whose star is shining bright at the moment.

Many tip Bardella, 28, to become the next prime minister of France.

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“France has given its verdict and there is no appeal,” said Bardella. “Our compatriots have expressed a desire for change but also a path for the future.”

He said the results showed the “determination of our country for the European Union to change direction” and called Macron a “weakened president.”

But who is Bardella? What do we know about him?

Let’s take a closer look:

Early years

Bardella was born in 1995.

Sky News reported that Bardella’s mother was an Italian immigrant who came to France in the 1960s from Turin.

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She split up from his businessman father when Bardella was an infant.

According to CNN, Bardella was raised in Paris’ working-class suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

However, Sky News reported that Bardella’s father paid for him to go to a private secondary school.

A piece in Le Monde noted that Bardella also received a smart car as a birthday gift and travelled to Miami with his father.

Bardella joined the RN at age 16 after the violent riots in the French suburbs in 2005.

“Like many families, many people who live in these neighbourhoods, I was confronted with violence, and my mother struggled to make ends meet. The truth is that the sense of urgency that led me into politics has never left me,” Bardella was quoted as saying in April by CNN.

He briefly attended the prestigious Sorbonne university in Paris before dropping out.

Meteoric rise

Bardella quickly rose through the RN ranks – serving as regional councillor, spokesperson, and vice-president of RN.

As per Washington Post, he served on Le Pen’s presidential campaign in 2017.

The RN leader nicknamed Bardella “the lion’s cub,” Sky News reported.

He also spearheaded the campaign RN’s 2019 European elections at age 23 – which saw him elected to the European Parliament.

In 2022, Bardella was chosen as Le Pen’s successor – ending the Le Pen’s family 50-year-hold on the party, as per CNN.

This came after Le Pen had expelled her father Jean-Marie Le Pen – a Holocaust denier – from the party in an attempt to shed its racist and anti-semitic roots.

Bardella’s carefully curated story has added to smoothing the image of the RN, which Jean-Marie Le Pen once ran from a chateau in a rich town west of the capital.

Dr Itay Lotem, senior lecturer in French studies at the University of Westminster, told Sky News Le Pen thought Bardella was “good investment for the future” and “a young, fresh face that she could control.”

“He was well-known as a person who followed party lines rather than having his own thoughts, while presenting a very smooth face that fitted Le Pen’s detoxification programme,” Lotem added.

Pierre-Stéphane Fort, an investigative journalist and the author of a new book on Bardella, agreed.

Fort earlier told The Washington Post that Le Pen noted Bardella’s humble beginnings and turned him into a marketable, social-media-savvy surrogate.

Le Pen and Bardella seem to have a close relationship.

“I’m a loyal, well-behaved boy and I’ll always be her first supporter,” Bardella told CNN.

Meanwhile, Le Pen, whose niece Bardella once dated, has said she is a ‘great admirer’ and that he displays ‘great maturity.’

TikTok star, culture warrior

Bardella is a bonified star on TikTok.

As per CNN, he has 1.5 million followers and videos of him drinking wine, doing shots and even eating cereal rake up thousands of views.

He also posts videos taking shots at his opponents such as drinking a beer with the caption “drinking the tears of Macron fans.”

However, despite Le Pen’s efforts, the RN has not changed its populist tone.

“We will act by expelling delinquents, criminals and foreign Islamists who pose a threat to national security,” Bardella was quoted as saying at a rally by CNN.

Bardella’s rallying cry is “France is disappearing,” as per Sky News.

“Our civilisation will die… because it will be submerged by migrants who will have changed our customs, culture, and way of life irreversibly.”

Critics also point to Bardella’s record in the European Parliament – or lack thereof.

As per Euro News, Bardella doesn’t have a single parliamentary report to his name.

He’s also been absent for 75 per cent of meetings of his parliamentary committee – leading to far-left European lawmaker Manon Aubry calling Bardella a “ghost parliamentarian.”

Bardella has also been accused of being light on policy details.

“What does Mr Bardella want? We don’t know. He says nothing. He’s a good-looking guy, but what’s his program? Throwing immigrants into the sea,” far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said, as per CNN.

‘Against Europe works now’

During the European Parliament campaign, Bardella was widely seen as having won a televised debate against the little-known head of Macron’s party list, Valerie Hayer.

Apparently nervous of Hayer’s capacities in the head-to-head format, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal then himself took on Bardella in a debate on May 23 and succeeded in putting the RN chief under considerable pressure over Europe.

Attal sought to paint Bardella as leading a party without substance that had no serious interest in Europe and a vision “of turning in on ourselves and the end of the European Union.”

Bardella countered: “I am not against Europe. I am against the way Europe works now.”

But experts say there is no real difference between Le Pen and Bardella.

Marta Lorimer, political science researcher and fellow at the London School of Economics, told Bloomberg, “Bardella has the exact same ideas as Le Pen, it’s just that he’s not called Le Pen and he’s 28. The National Rally hasn’t moderated hugely in the last 10 years. There’s nothing that would justify thinking of it as anything else than a radical right party. And Bardella is just a cleaner, nicer face, but he’s not a moderate.”

Bardella’s rise has not been entirely free of controversy either.

A French television report alleged in January that he used an anonymous Twitter account to share racist messages when he was a local elected official, claims he has vehemently denied.

One 2017 post from the “RepNat du Gaito” account includes an obscene image mocking Theo Luhaka, a young black man who suffered severe anal injuries from a police baton that year, the France 2 report said.

A French court in January gave three officers suspended jail sentences in the case, a rare one of police brutality to make it to court.

Bardella has not revolutionised the party’s belief system, experts point out, but he is still giving his party a youthful vibe.

“Captain, oh captain, we need you to guide us,” goes the soundtrack to his campaign post on TikTok.

With inputs from agencies