“Bardella has always been attached to the international credibility of the National Rally,” said the aide, who was granted anonymity to share details of Bardella’s plans. “He will give great attention to the international press during the campaign.”
Since shooting up the National Rally’s ranks in his twenties, Bardella has brought a polished professionalism to a party that long struggled to run a tight ship. He led the party to impressive victories in the 2019 and 2024 European elections and is now the head of the Patriots group in the European Parliament. The party is now more popular than ever, and Le Pen is the front-runner to win next year’s presidential election.
But when it looked like an embezzlement conviction would doom Le Pen’s chances at running for the presidency, Bardella, as the National Rally’s presumptive candidate, tried to woo more fiscally conservative voters — including France’s business elite — by flirting with a more market-friendly platform than his mentor.
But Bardella has been adjusting to a secondary role since an appeals court cleared a path for Le Pen to run as the party’s presidential nominee — and she has made clear that fiscal discipline won’t come at the expense of the promises she has made to her core voters. That includes her pledge to lower the retirement age for most workers to 62 at a cost of €9 billion per year.
Bardella is now eyeing a role similar to the one Giorgia Meloni held before she became Italian prime minister in 2022.
Bardella “watched with great interest the campaign of Giorgia Meloni, who flooded the international press to reassure institutions and the financial markets,” the aide said.
