Marine Le Pen herself has long taken aim at big money, hammering away at the global elites that meet in places like Davos, while winning over voters wounded by plant closures and the ripple effects of globalization in France’s industrial heartlands.
Last week, MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy — one of Le Pen’s closest lieutenants — reminded reporters of one of her longtime mantras during a press conference about the party’s platform for addressing climate change, which National Rally blames on the ruling elite.
Le Pen has described “two types of totalitarianism,” said Tanguy. “Islamist totalitarianism and the totalitarianism of money as a ruling power, money at all costs.”
In that context, the irony of Bardella’s current situation is not lost on Le Pen loyalists, who fear the political repercussions of his love story, and the way he is handling it. One recent poll by the research firm Verian offered a warning sign: Bardella was the politician most closely associated with the elite, with 17 percent of respondents saying he belonged to it.
While the result could be read as a sign that National Rally supporters see Bardella as belonging to an intellectual or business elite, it also points to the ambiguity of the term among French voters in general, and far-right voters in particular, according to Verian Director General Laure Salvaing, who oversaw the poll.
“What National Rally supporters criticize about the elite is not so much power and privilege but rather a disconnect” from everyday reality, she said. That is where Bardella is “walking a tightrope.”