Who is Jordan Bardella, the young influencer revolutionising Rassemblement national

Even Marine Le Pen is a bit uneasy. So, at least, sources close to her tell us. Jordan Bardella has succeeded in leading the Rassemblement national to results never achieved before, if we exclude the second round of the presidential elections, where there were only two candidates. Now his name is being put forward for the leadership of the government, in place of the party leader: with 32% - the polling figure after the first count - he has taken more than twice as many votes as the candidate of Renaissance, Macron's coalition, Valérie Hayer. who is credited with 15% and risked being overtaken by the socialist Raphael Glucksmann .

Not everything is thanks to him. The break-up of the electoral cartel of the left, which in the first polls seemed to be ahead; a high turnout (49%); and the weakness of his rival. Bardella has, however, managed to break through among the young. Not least because he is young himself: he is 28 years old and already has extensive experience. He was also at the head of the list in 2019, when he was chosen at the age of 23 by Marine, in a shrewd manner: Bardella has a father of Italian origin, while his mother was born in Turin. His great-grandfather, Mohand Seghir Mada, was an Algerian from Kabylia. He also grew up in social housing in Drancy, in the Parisian banlieues.

A citizen of the new France, in short, who appears credible when he emphasises the problems of his places of origin. Among young people, he has become as popular as an influencer; they now run to his meetings to listen to him and take a selfie. A surprise to many: until a few months ago, the Rassemblement national was a party of boomers. At the beginning of the year, Bardella was the only politician in the list of the 50 most liked personalities of the French, according to the Ifop poll for Le journal de dimanche. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, however, dropped out of the ranking.

With him, the Rassemblement national reaps the benefits of dédiabolisation, the slow normalisation of its positions, but also its insistence on the immigration issue, which for the French remains the most sensitive. Especially after the Ministry of the Interior revealed in September that crime is on the rise across the board in France, and that foreigners - who are not, however, immigrants - are the protagonists of crimes in greater proportion to their share of the population (8%). Many are said to be of African nationality, although the manipulation of data during the election campaign was very strong.

Bardella is making his contribution in creating the new rhetoric of the populist right. He does not speak of 'Great Replacement' - Marine has banned it - and veers towards 'population replacement', a concept that seems credible, judging by what is happening in several French centres. He avoids, unlike the leader, attacking the oligarchy and slowly aims to federate the right-wingers. The only one of his group, he then applauded Zelensky in Strasbourg.