Jordan Bardella on Saturday succeeded his mentor Marine Le Pen at the helm of France’s most popular far-right party, the National Rally.
Bardella, 27, won an intra-party vote with 85% support, marking a symbolic changing of the guard for the resurgent anti-immigrant party.
He is the first party leader since its founding half a century ago who is not from the Le Pen family.
Bardella vowed to protect France from perceived immigration threats and defended a party member who made a racist remark in Parliament earlier this week.
The National Rally is trying to capitalize on its recent breakthrough in the French general election and growing support for far-right parties in Europe, particularly in neighboring Italy.
It’s also faced widespread public anger over an offensive comment by one of its MPs in response to a black lawmaker.
Marine Le Pen is still expected to wield significant power in the leadership of the party and will run again for the French presidency in 2027.
She said she stepped aside to focus on leading the party’s 89 MPs in France’s National Assembly.
She hugged Bardella to broad applause after the results were announced at a party conference on the Left Bank in Paris, and both raised their arms in triumph.
Le Pen said Bardella’s main challenge is to follow the party’s “roadmap” to take power in France.
“We will win!” Followers chanted.
New party leader calls for ‘drastic’ immigration rules
Anti-racism activists, union leaders and politicians protested the National Assembly nearby on Saturday, denouncing what many see as a creeping acceptance of their xenophobic views.
Yeliz Alkac, 30, said she was demonstrating to support people facing ongoing racism in France.
She described shock that the parliamentary remark denigrating African immigrants was seen as “normal” by some in France.
“The fact that the National Assembly has 89 deputies in the National Assembly is a strong signal. It should be a warning of how strong the far right is going,” she said.
In his speech on Saturday, Bardella defended the National Assembly lawmaker who had been suspended over the remark, calling him a victim of a “manhunt”.
Bardella described his family’s Italian immigrant roots and pride in becoming French, but made it clear that not all foreigners are welcome.
“France should not be the hotel of the world,” he said, calling for “drastic” immigration restrictions.
He welcomed a representative of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party, who came to the congress and called for a “rapprochement” of similar forces in Europe.
Bardella has been interim president of the National Rally since Le Pen entered the presidential race last year.
He beat party heavyweight Louis Aliot, 53, who had argued the National Rally needed to be reconfigured to be more palatable to the mainstream right.
“Bardella’s election feels like a fresh boost,” said party member Marie Audinette, 23. “He embodies youth.”
Audinette, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Bordeaux, said her country was “going under”, citing deteriorating public services struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also described “a marked change in population” in Bordeaux.
Some far-right supporters in France are increasingly referring to the false “grand substitute” conspiracy theory that Western countries’ populations are being deliberately overrun by non-white, non-Christian immigrants.
The claim, promoted by white supremacists, has led to deadly attacks.
Questions remain about Le Pen’s Moscow connections
Le Pen lost to French President Emmanuel Macron in her third presidential bid in April, but achieved her highest score to date.
Two months later, her party won its most-ever lower house of seats, thanks in part to Le Pen’s efforts to focus on inflation and workers’ economic woes.
Le Pen has worked to remove the stigma of racism and anti-Semitism attached to her party and broaden its base.
She has notably distanced herself from her now-ostracized father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the then Front National party and has been repeatedly convicted of hate speech.
“Bardella belongs to a generation of young, very young people who were behind Marine Le Pen in the 2010s and who probably would not have participated in the National Rally in Jean-Marie Le Pen’s day,” says political scientist Jean-Yves Camus said.
The Le Pen family and the party are also closely linked to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
While Le Pen condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she also questioned Western sanctions against Russia, and her party took out a €9.01 million loan from the First Czech-Russian Bank in 2014, which many saw as an attempt by Russia considered to influence French politics.
According to Camus, Saturday’s party vote will not challenge Le Pen’s leadership.
“Le Pen doesn’t have to deal with the party (now) and can focus on what’s most important, leading the party’s MPs in the National Assembly,” he said.