At just 29, Jordan Bardella inherits the French far-right spotlight, whether he’s ready or not

PARIS (news agencies) — He wears his suits like armor, smiles like a pop star and boasts more than 2 million followers on TikTok. At just 29, Jordan Bardella has become the fresh-faced figurehead of France’s National Rally party and is now poised to inherit one of the most electorally successful far-right machines in Europe.

But behind the image of youthful confidence lies a question increasingly whispered by allies and adversaries alike: Can Bardella, who has no experience in government, really lead?

The presidential ambitions of Bardella’s mentor, Marine Le Pen, could be over after a French court convicted her of embezzling European Union funds and barred her from holding office for five years. That means Bardella finds himself the last man standing atop the largest party in the French National Assembly. But having the spotlight doesn’t mean he commands the stage.

Critics call him Le Pen’s puppet. Le Pen calls him her asset.

On Monday night, she seemed to suggest the moment of reckoning might be approaching sooner than expected.

“I hope we won’t have to use that asset sooner than necessary,” she told the TF1 television network.

Bardella was born in 1995 in the gritty suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis — a place more often in headlines for gang violence and poverty than political promise. He grew up in public housing, the son of Italian and Algerian heritage. His father ran a vending machine business. His family scraped together enough to send him to a semi-private Catholic school. He never finished university.

But ambition moved faster than education. At 17, he joined the National Rally — then still known as the National Front, a party shunned by polite society and defined by the legacy of Jean-Marie Le Pen. For most, it was a dead end. For Bardella, it was a launchpad.