Conquered by Jordan Bardella, younger folks flock to the final assembly of the National Rally | EUROtoday

A duo of DJs, massive sound, gentle reveals: if the portrait of Jordan Bardella was not displayed massive on the screens in the back of the stage of the Dôme de Paris, Sunday June 2, we’d have thought we have been in a live performance reasonably than a political assembly. With its 28-year-old candidate, the National Rally (RN) is aware of that it’s now reaching a youthful voters and is adapting by making them need to come, and particularly to return, to its conferences.

One week earlier than the European elections of June 9, for which Jordan Bardella is extensively within the lead with greater than 30% of voting intentions, in response to the polls, the lieutenants and different second knives of the RN who normally warmth the room have been left to the remainder. The hits of Sean Paul, Madonna, Eurythmics and LMFAO have been most well-liked to welcome the roughly 5,500 sympathizers gathered at Porte de Versailles. Only spokesperson Laure Lavalette and Marine Le Pen, president of the National Rally group within the National Assembly, spoke on this method earlier than Jordan Bardella. And it really works. Like his use of the social networks TikTok and Instagram to speak, the pinnacle of the RN checklist managed to make a far-right assembly “cool” for a few of the youth.

“It's my first meeting, I wanted to see what it was like and, above all, I wanted to see Jordan Bardella, rejoices Lucie, 18 years old. He is someone eloquent, who knows how to speak to young people with words that we understand… And what’s more, he’s handsome,” she provides with an embarrassed smile.

Would Jordan Bardella have turn out to be a rock star along with his followers and groupies? The presence, on Sunday in Paris, of very many younger folks, and notably younger ladies, could lead on us to consider this. As properly because the “Jordaaaannn!” and the “I love you!” shouted on the prime of their lungs and interrupting his speech as throughout a live performance. In any case, 34% of these underneath 30 need to vote for the National Rally on June 9, in response to an Ipsos ballot, revealed Wednesday May 29, on Brut and Franceinfo. Voting intentions which even climb to 38% amongst 22-25 yr olds, once more in response to the identical survey.

“I am here because my 14-year-old daughter convinced me to make the trip,” says Faustine, a 42-year-old farmer who has simply arrived from Champagne to attend the assembly. “It's always been my dream to see Jordan [Bardella] in real life”, confirms Érinyes, who follows politics loads on the conservative channel CNews. “He has a lot of charisma and he is someone upright and honest, who will do what he says. He will really try to change things,” she thinks.

“On immigration, the Republicans are much too lax”

Starting by reducing immigration. Like their elders, young people seduced by Jordan Bardella's speech systematically answer “immigration” when requested on which theme the boss of the RN stands out from the opposite candidates of their eyes.

This is the case of Lucie and Erinyes, but additionally of Élie, 20 years outdated, who remains to be hesitating between a vote for Jordan Bardella and Marion Maréchal. “I have always been on the right, so immigration and security are subjects that are close to my heart and I find that the Republicans are far too lax on these issues,” he believes.

On this level, Jordan Bardella reassures him, affirming throughout his speech that we should “preserve our way of life and what we are in the face of mass immigration”. For him, “our civilization can die because the migratory submersion will have changed our morals, our customs, our ways of life. In countless neighborhoods, the French no longer recognize the France that saw them grow up.” And to denounce an “Islamic totalitarianism which wishes to conquer France to impose its rules there.”

Enough to set off a tune typical of far-right conferences that we may already hear on the time of Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front: “We're at home! We're at home! We're at home!” . An anthem that the RN DJs haven’t but included of their playlist.

Read additionallyJordan Bardella and the RN within the European Parliament: absenteeism, contradictions and lobbie pursuits

The fundamentals of the RN stay the identical. Jordan Bardella's marketing campaign relies as soon as once more on the sensation of downgrading skilled by sure French folks, and with this, the concept of ​​a decline in France.

“We are France standing in the face of erasure and disintegration,” insisted the candidate. “The issue of these elections is the disappearance of France. The nation or its dilution”, for her half, launched Marine Le Pen earlier than him.

Jordan Bardella “no extreme right”

Beyond immigration, the pinnacle of the RN checklist additionally insisted on the buying energy issues of the French, recalling that “millions of French people give up traveling and heating” because of the excessive costs of vitality.

“This is what differentiates him from Marion Maréchal, who only talks about immigration. Jordan Bardella also talks about purchasing power. It's the good compromise between security and social. He thinks about the interests of all French people” , choose Cyril, 18 years outdated, for whom the RN candidate is neither left nor proper, and positively not far proper.

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A time period that not one of the younger folks we met on Sunday agree with. For most of them, Jordan Bardella, regardless of measures reminiscent of nationwide desire which ties him to this political household, is “not far right”, however “just right”. An important factor that contributes to their sense of satisfaction. Because in contrast to the RN conferences of some years in the past, the place younger folks have been few in quantity and most well-liked to keep away from questions from journalists, they’re delighted to reply them and take full accountability for his or her vote.

Marine Le Pen was not mistaken. “You are the groundswell, the great current which has long traveled underground, sometimes repressed, sometimes dammed. But the dikes of political correctness are giving way one after the other,” she mentioned. Before addressing younger folks particularly: “I see a lot of young people in the room. I tell the youth to go and vote. If the youth votes, it's France that wins.”