Far-right European Parliament member Jordan Bardella, 27, was elected to succeed Marine Le Pen as president in the French far-right political party, National Rally (RN), on Saturday.
Bardella won nearly 85 percent of the votes cast by party members, while Louis Aliot, Le Pen’s former partner, received 15 percent.
It will be a seamless transition for party loyalist Bardella, who was already working as interim president for the party during the past year.
Jordan Bardella nouveau président du RN, le maire de Perpignan Louis Aliot largement battu https://t.co/nHmYS7aGN1 pic.twitter.com/9SKSjypltd
— France 3 Occitanie (@F3Occitanie) November 5, 2022
He is the first party president who is not a member of the Le Pen family.
"I am not leaving RN to take a holiday. I will be there where the country needs me," Le Pen said at the party convention on Saturday.
She had stepped down from the top job in 2021 as she unsuccessfully ran against Emmanuel Macron. She is slated to represent the party for the next presidential election in 2027.
Le Pen made her mark on the party by toning down some of her father’s anti-immigrant, eurosceptic policies. Her father, Jean-Marie, founded the party in 1972.
Bardella at the fore
Bardella stands out in the party as the quick-witted, slick representative who has sparred with Macron ministers and MPs on French political TV shows.
Brought up by an Italian mother in a working-class neighbourhood on the outskirts of Paris, his youth and verve is expected to attract non-traditional far-right French voters.
His meteoric rise in RN politics was seals when he led the European election campaign in 2019, receiving more seats than Macron’s party.
Bardella is taking the helm just one day after an RN lawmaker shouted "Go back to Africa!" to a Black legislator who was speaking during a parliamentary session. MP Gregoire de Fournas had his pay cut and was temporarily banned from the chamber after his racist outburst.
