PARIS ― National Rally President Jordan Bardella declared that he would stick by his mentor Marine Le Pen’s side despite the increasingly likely prospect that he will have to replace her as their party’s presidential candidate in 2027 after she was found guilty of embezzlement.
“The least I owe her is to continue the fight with her until the end,” Bardella said in an interview Tuesday, his first since Le Pen was convicted and barred for running from public office for the next five years.
Le Pen vowed to fight on in a primetime interview Monday evening, though she acknowledged the long odds she faces to overturn the verdict. When asked if Bardella was ready to take her place as the National Rally’s presidential candidate, Le Pen pointedly declined to endorse his candidacy.
“Jordan Bardella is a tremendous asset for the movement. I hope we won’t have to use this asset any sooner than necessary,” the three-time presidential candidate said.
Bardella declined to say if he would replace her in 2027, but did acknowledge that she had been “de facto” barred from running.
The National Rally has come out swinging since Le Pen and 23 others were convicted of misappropriating European Parliament funds, accusing the three-judge panel that heard the case of making a political decision and undermining French democracy.
“Today this is no longer the government of judges, it is a tyranny of judges,” Bardella said Tuesday.
Bardella on Tuesday called those who heard Le Pen’s case “red judges,” an expression used for years by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who claimed that communist judges were out to get him.
He also said the National Rally wouldn’t topple France’s minority government to protest the court’s ruling, but that the party would support a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister François Bayrou if he does not take legislative action to address issues relating to purchasing power, immigration and “Islamism.”
National Rally heavyweights have been threatening to collapse the government in recent days, ostensibly over energy policy, and loyalists close to Le Pen may now be tempted now to follow through with those threats.
Bardella said millions of French consider Le Pen’s exclusion from the election unfair and will react by endorsing the far-right party.
“What is happening will push millions of people who do not vote for the National Rally to come and vote for the National Rally,” he said.
Early polling may indicate otherwise. A survey by pollster Odoxa after the sentencing was announced found that 54 percent of respondents said they believed her sentence was a sign that France had a healthy democracy, while 65 percent said they were “satisfied” or “indifferent” to the verdict.
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