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Marine Le Pen’s run for the French presidency is not good news for opponents of the National Rally.
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According to several centrist and left-wing members of the European Parliament contacted by Euronews, the veteran French far-right leader will have more appeal to voters than Jordan Bardella, the young MEP whom many expected to replace her as RN’s candidate should she have been deemed ineligible to run.
After Le Pen announced her intention to run in France’s 2027 presidential election despite her fraud conviction, with Bardella positioned as a candidate for the prime minister’s office, many in France have wondered whether it might not have been better to hand over the baton completely.
But despite polls suggesting that Bardella would have broader support in the first round of a presidential election, lawmakers in Brussels have no doubt: Le Pen has a better chance of becoming president.
“French voters are not looking for an adventure with a young candidate; they want to be reassured,” MEP Sandro Gozi from the centrist Democratic Movement told Euronews. His view is that Le Pen is better placed to play to people’s needs and fears, such as war, energy concerns, and declining purchasing power.
Le Pen and Bardella also have different views on two crucial economic issues for French voters: the plan to lower France’s legal retirement age to 62 and the exceptional taxation of energy companies’ excess profits. In both cases, Le Pen has taken the more popular stance.
As Gozi sees it, she has built her entire career around the idea of representing the people against the elite, even to the point of being accused of having a Socialist programme. On the other hand, Bardella wants to gain credibility among the French upper class, and his attempts to curry favour with them may alienate working-class voters.
“Everything in him is very well studied to open the door of the big industry, even his love story with the princess,” Gozi said, referring to Bardella’s romantic relationship with Maria Carolina di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, daughter of a business banker and a descendant of the king who ruled over Southern Italy.
Against the odds
Le Pen’s personal story, with three failed attempts to become president and a legal battle that nearly prevented her from running in 2027, has also contributed to an outsider image that generates support and empathy among ordinary French people.
“People admire her scars,” Gozi said.
The general view in the Parliament is that a determined Le Pen making her fourth bid for the presidency is a tougher opponent to defeat in the second round of the French election than relative newcomer Bardella.
“She is more experienced and ready to stand presidential debates, while he would be very weak if you go beyond the talking points,” says Manon Aubry, head of the left-wing France Unbowed delegation in the European Parliament.
Another MEP from the Renaissance Party, speaking on condition of anonymity, believes she is indeed the worst opponent to face, especially because she has learnt from previous mistakes, including a brutal debate against now-president Emmanuel Macron in 2017.
Le Pen’s experience is a crucial element also for Socialist Brando Benifei, who rejects the suggestion that Bardella would have had more chances thanks to the support of young voters.
“He has maybe more followers, she has more appeal in a generation that is more significant in demographic terms,” he told Euronews, claiming that young French people with foreign backgrounds would not vote for the far right regardless of who the leader is.
“All things considered, Le Pen is a more solid candidate for National Rally, and therefore a bigger problem for us,” he said.
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