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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her successor, National Rally President Jordan Bardella, are trying to display unity as tensions between the two have increased in recent weeks.
The pair will attend Eurosatory together, one of the world's largest arms fairs, north of Paris, where they will be able to showcase their similar views on security and defense issues.
The visit, according to a National Rally lawmaker, aims to reaffirm their proposal for a "joint ticket" ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with Le Pen running for the top job and promising to appoint Bardella as her prime minister if she wins.
Already a leading figure on the far right, Bardella has been thrust into the spotlight ever since Le Pen's presidential hopes suffered a fatal blow in March when a French court found her guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds. Le Pen was immediately banned from running for public office for the next five years and has only a slim chance of overturning the decision, with her appeal scheduled for next year.
“She’s not dead yet, but some are already trying to bury her. She finds this irritating,” said the National Rally lawmaker, who, like others quoted in this article, was granted anonymity to discuss the far-right party’s internal politics.
"She wants to publicly reaffirm that she is still here," he added.
The decision fueled rumors of a split between the two, as Bardella would be the natural candidate to succeed Le Pen if her appeal fails, as he has publicly stated.
Recent polls show that the two leaders perform similarly in polls related to the 2027 race.
While the two have publicly said they remain on the same page, they have sometimes appeared at odds with each other. Le Pen's anger at their contrasting fortunes flared last month during a visit to the French territory of New Caledonia.
She said at the time that she was “not sure if Jordan knows very well the problems that New Caledonia faces. We have different talents.”
On Tuesday, Bardella again fueled speculation about a growing rivalry with Le Pen when he appeared to favor early presidential elections.
"In reality, only presidential elections, even early ones, would allow us to get out of the current democratic crisis," Bardella said on French radio.
But early presidential elections would de facto exclude Le Pen, who currently cannot run for public office and who has already lost a local mandate.
While French President Emmanuel Macron has categorically denied that he could resign and trigger early presidential elections before the end of his term in 2027, political opponents regularly call for one as a way out of the parliamentary deadlock.
Le Pen supporters have since tried to downplay Bardella's comment. One ally described it to Politico as an "unfortunate turn of phrase," while another said the party leader, who is only 29, was "hitting from the hip."
But such mistakes will inevitably remind voters of both Le Pen's legal troubles and Bardella's lack of experience, which could become a handicap during the election campaign - especially if he faces experienced right-wing presidential candidates such as former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe or the popular Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. /Adapted from Politico Pamphlet /
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