Jordan Bardella joined what was then France’s National Front at the age of 16.

That same year in 2012, party leader Marine Le Pen made her first failed bid for the French presidency, finishing in third place.

In the next two presidential elections in 2017 and 2022, Ms Le Pen – the daughter of the National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen – improved her vote share – so why did she put a then 27-year-old Mr Bardella in charge instead?

In 2022, Ms Le Pen made the tactical decision to install a much younger candidate as party leader.

This would allow her to focus on her presidential campaign bid for 2027 and continue with her long-term rebrand of the party, which changed its name from the National Front to National Rally (RN) in 2018 to remove the last of her father’s influence – she threw him out of the party in 2015.

Mr Bardella had already been appointed vice president in 2019 and, in the same year, had become the second-youngest MEP in European history.

He had also served as RN spokesperson and president of its youth wing Generation Nation (Nation Generation), formerly Front National de la Jeunesse (National Front of the Youth), with the guidance of media trainer and ex-journalist Pascal Humeau.

Dr Itay Lotem, senior lecturer in French studies at the University of Westminster, says Ms Le Pen saw him as a “good investment for the future” as he was “a young, fresh face that she could control”.

“He was well-known as a person who followed party lines rather than having his own thoughts, while presenting a very smooth face that fitted Le Pen’s detoxification programme,” he adds.

Son of Italian immigrant

Mr Bardella was born in the north Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis in 1995.

His mother, an Italian immigrant who came to France in the 1960s from Turin, split from his father, a businessman, when he was a year old.

In interviews, he claims his upbringing in one of the suburb’s troubled social housing blocks saw him regularly exposed to violence.

But he attended a private secondary school, with his father paying the fees.

He credits a week spent interning at a local police station with his move into politics at 16.

The teenager then went to Paris’s Sorbonne university to study geography, but dropped out to pursue a full-time career in politics.

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TikTok politician

Having made his way up the party ranks and affectionately nicknamed “the lion’s cub” by Ms Le Pen, RN has officially declared Mr Bardella its candidate for prime minister, should it succeed in Emmanuel Macron’s snap legislative elections this summer.

France’s current prime minister Gabriel Attal became the country’s youngest person to ever take on the role at the age of 34 – and the first to be gay – when he was appointed by Mr Macron in January.

Mr Bardella has used his 1.2 million-strong following on TikTok and other social platforms to appeal to other young people in France.

Several RN events see him flocked with people asking for selfies.

His catchphrase “France is disappearing” is part of the party’s anti-immigration rhetoric.

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Mr Bardella told a rally previously: “Our civilisation will die… because it will be submerged by migrants who will have changed our customs, culture, and way of life irreversibly.”

Under his leadership, RN promises to put immigrants at the back of the queue for social housing places and other forms of welfare in favour of French citizens.

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Many have observed his use of his immigrant background, which also has distant roots in Algeria, according to Le Monde newspaper, to counter claims the party is racist.

Founding president Jean-Marie Le Pen was indicted on racism or racial hatred charges at least six times, including for comments about the Holocaust and members of France’s Muslim community.

Mr Le Pen could be Mr Bardella’s future grandfather-in-law, as he has dated Mr Le Pen’s granddaughter Nolwenn Olivier since 2020.

Dr Lotem says that although Mr Bardella has long claimed his ascent was down to his loyalty to Ms Le Pen and her commitment to the “detoxification” of the party: “He became an activist as a fan of her father.”

There are claims he used an anonymous Twitter account to tweet racist and homophobic views, but he has always denied this.

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