National Rally President Jordan Bardella confirmed on Saturday he will run in the 2027 French presidential election if his mentor Marine Le Pen — the three-time candidate and front-runner whose ambitions have been derailed by an embezzlement conviction — is barred from taking part.
“There is no ambiguity about the fact that Marine Le Pen is my candidate, but that if she was prevented [from running] tomorrow, I think I can tell you that I would be her candidate,” he told French publication Le Parisien in an interview published Saturday.
Bardella, the 29-year-old chair of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, has long been seen as the heir-apparent in the National Rally but had not openly endorsed his backup role in the presidential bid until now.
He emerged as the most likely candidate of France’s largest far-right party for the 2027 ballot after Le Pen was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to an immediate five-year ban from running for public office. Le Pen and 23 other defendants were accused of misusing more than €4 million of European Parliament funds to pay people who were nominally MEP assistants but in fact worked mostly on party affairs.
“I work and get ready,” Bardella said, citing the “overriding necessity to remain united.”
“Marine Le Pen is presumed innocent and we are going to use every possible recourse to continue to proclaim our innocence in this case,” he underscored.
A court of appeal said it would issue a decision on her case by summer next year.
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