Le Pen admits Elysee hopes probably lost

Marine Le Pen has asked Jordan Bardella, her top lieutenant, to prepare to replace her as National Rally’s presidential candidate.

Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella at a meeting of the group Patriots for Europe in the European Parliament. Picture: AFP.

Marine Le Pen has asked Jordan Bardella, her top lieutenant, to prepare to replace her as the presidential candidate for the hard-right National Rally if the appeal court upholds a bar on her entering the 2027 election.

The 56-year-old populist, who is well ahead in the polls in her planned fourth run for the French presidency, acknowledged for the first time that her conviction in March for embezzling EU funds could block her path to the Elysee Palace. Her words were a boost for her 29-year-old protege, who was elected president of the party in 2022. They were also part of a shift to broaden the Rally’s appeal to conservative voters.

Le Pen was barred from standing for public office for five years but, after an outcry, the justice authorities fast-tracked her appeal so the case will be retried from scratch next spring. A verdict is expected about a year before the spring 2027 elections.

“I have accepted the possibility that I may be unable to run. Jordan has accepted the possibility that he may have to take up the torch,” Le Pen told Valeurs Actuelles, a right-wing weekly.

“Jordan and I will enter the presidential race until the court case is decided,” Le Pen said. “Until then, I will continue to fight … Of course, the situation is not ideal. But what else do you suggest? That I commit suicide before I’m murdered?”

Marine Le Pen and President Jordan Bardella after delivering a speech during a rally in her support, after she was convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament. Picture: AFP.

Le Pen, who has twice finished as runner-up to Emmanuel Macron in the two-round elections, says the conviction is political and claims she is the victim of a witch-hunt. Until now, she has refused publicly to contemplate exclusion, saying in April that Bardella would be the Rally candidate only if she were “hit by a truck”.

Bardella, an articulate party activist from the depressed northern Paris suburbs, has established himself as a star since his promotion by Le Pen. As an MEP and slick media operator, he enjoys ratings almost as high as hers and is more popular with younger voters. Senior figures in the Rally, however, see him as a fragile candidate for head of state because of his youth and inexperience. His performance in debates has revealed a poor grasp of detail.

Macron, who is one of the most unpopular presidents in decades, is barred from running for a third term and no strong contenders have yet emerged from a crowded field of hopefuls on the left, centre and conservative branches of a fragmented political world.

Le Pen’s conviction played a role this week in saving the minority centre-right government led by Francois Bayrou. She decided not to lead her 139 Rally and allied MPs into a no-confidence vote tabled by the left-wing opposition that would have automatically brought down the government if she joined. The party chief, who still holds her seat, is said to have been reluctant to risk provoking Macron into calling a snap parliamentary election in which her conviction would bar her from standing. She is also said to have calculated that joining the left and scuppering the government for the second time in six months would anger conservative voters who prize stability.

From July 8, the constitution allows Macron to dissolve parliament again as it will be 12 months since the polls he staged in June last year, with disastrous results for his centrist bloc’s hold on power. The last minority government, led by Michel Barnier, collapsed in a no-confidence vote in December.

Bardella is credited with swaying Le Pen away from the populist anti-immigrant and anti-business policies of the Rally’s older base to make the party more palatable to middle-class conservatives who support the Republicans party, the political family of the former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac.

Tension has appeared between Bardella and Le Pen over how much to oppose Macron’s explosively unpopular 2023 pension reforms.

The Times