France’s
Far-Right Leader Says the National Rally Is Ready to Govern
If he
becomes prime minister after snap elections, Jordan Bardella, the party’s
president, said he would represent all. But he also said dual citizens should
not hold some “sensitive” jobs.
Aurelien
Breeden
By Aurelien
Breeden
Reporting
from Paris
June 24,
2024
Jordan
Bardella, the president of France’s far-right National Rally, insisted at a
news conference on Monday that he would be a prime minister for all French
people if his party won the country’s upcoming snap elections, even as he
defended his party’s proposal to bar French citizens with dual nationalities
from certain “sensitive” jobs.
Mr. Bardella
spent much of the event focusing on his priorities should he become prime
minister — drastically reducing immigration, toughening sentences for those
convicted of certain crimes and lowering energy prices — if his nationalist
party won a snap election for France’s lower house of Parliament. The election
was called this month by President Emmanuel Macron and is being held in two
rounds, on June 30 and July 7.
“We are
ready,” Mr. Bardella told journalists at a marble-adorned venue in a plush
neighborhood of Paris, as he sought to dispel criticism from Mr. Macron and
from a new alliance of left-wing parties that the National Rally is unfit and
unworthy to govern.
While the
National Rally is leading in the latest polls, ahead of the left-wing alliance
and of Mr. Macron’s centrist alliance, it is unclear if the party will win
enough of the lower house’s 577 seats to secure an absolute majority and form a
government.
Mr. Macron,
who has three years left in office, has the power to appoint the prime
minister. But the lower house could override his choice — making it all but
certain he would have to appoint Mr. Bardella if the National Rally won the
elections. That, in turn, would enable Mr. Bardella to form a cabinet and to
govern France, blocking Mr. Macron’s domestic agenda and potentially disrupting
his defense and foreign policies, which are traditionally but not exclusively
presidential prerogatives.
But a hung
Parliament with no clear majority could lead to months of instability or
gridlock, as Mr. Macron cannot call new legislative elections for another year
and has ruled out resigning.
Mr. Bardella
dismissed the centrist coalition’s chances of mustering a majority. But he also
said he would agree to become prime minister only if his party and its allies
had an absolute majority.
“I won’t go
to Matignon for personal glory, to say I spent 15 days there, and then be
toppled by a no-confidence vote,” Mr. Bardella said, referring to the prime
minister’s residence. “I want power that I can exercise.”
But his
acknowledgment that his government would single out people with dual
citizenship and bar them from certain jobs — even if only in niche situations —
raised worries. Critics are concerned that a nationalist government could
potentially target some citizens and restrict their rights based on their
origins, breaking with France’s universalist promise to treat all equally.
In a letter
published by France’s regional press on Sunday, Mr. Macron said the far right
“divides the nation” by making a distinction between “those it calls real
French people” and those it deems French only because of their “papers.”
In 2022,
Marine Le Pen, the National Rally’s perennial presidential candidate, dropped a
pledge to make it illegal for French people to hold another citizenship. But
the concept of “national preference” — giving French citizens favored treatment
over foreigners for certain government jobs, benefits or subsidies — is still
central to the party’s platform.
Mr.
Bardella, who insisted that “not a single French person will see their rights
removed,” argued that the latest proposal would apply only to a very small
number of jobs in “strategic” defense or security, although he did not say
which ones. He called it a common-sense measure to prevent foreign interference
and noted that a similar rule already applies to foreigners.
In the
current climate, he asked, “Could you imagine a Franco-Russian working at the
defense ministry?”
Under Ms. Le
Pen, who was president of the National Rally from 2011 to 2021, the party was
close to the Russia of President Vladimir V. Putin. It has since condemned
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but has repeatedly opposed sanctions
on some Russian imports and rejected the possibility of Ukraine’s joining the
European Union or NATO.
On Monday,
Mr. Bardella called Russia a “multidimensional” threat for France and said he
would be “extremely vigilant” about Russian interference.
“I have no
intention of calling into question France’s commitments, which would be likely
to weaken France’s voice and the credibility of our country on the
international stage,” he said when asked about support for Ukraine.
But he also
staked out “red lines” — sending Western troops to Ukraine and giving Ukraine
weapons with the ability to strike inside Russia — that set him apart from Mr.
Macron. Mr. Bardella’s stance might herald a foreign policy clash with Mr.
Macron if he becomes prime minister. Mr. Bardella has said he would be
“respectful” but “uncompromising” in his attitude toward the president.
Mr. Bardella
also rejected accusations that he had backtracked on key campaign pledges,
although he acknowledged that emergencies would take precedence and other
promises would be postponed.
He promised
to lower a sales tax on energy, like fuel and gas, and to negotiate a French
exemption from rules governing the European Union’s joint electricity market.
He vowed to reinstate minimum sentencing for offenses, eliminate hurdles to
deporting illegal immigrants and abolish the right for children born in France
to foreign parents to automatically become French citizens when they turn 18.
Mr. Bardella
said he would work on overhauling Mr. Macron’s pension reform, which last year
raised the legal age of retirement to 64, from 62. That, he cautioned, would
take time, but he said that those who started working before they turned 20
would under certain conditions be able to retire with a full pension at 60 as
soon as next fall.
How he would
accomplish his plans was sometimes murky. Asked repeatedly how he would make up
for a shortfall of seven billion euros ($7.5 billion) in revenue created by
lowering energy sales taxes, he mentioned possibilities, like renegotiating
France’s contribution to the European Union budget, but did not say how much
any of them would yield.
Whether
voters will worry about those details is unclear, after a frantic campaign that
has rocked French politics. After seven years in office, Mr. Macron is a
polarizing figure whose centrist coalition is fraying, as major politicians who
have been close to him suggest that they need to chart a new, more independent
course for the 2027 presidential election, in which Mr. Macron cannot run.
Gérald
Darmanin, Mr. Macron’s longtime interior minister, has already said that he
would resign if the National Rally or the New Popular Front won. Édouard
Philippe, Mr. Macron’s former prime minister, said bluntly last week that the
French president had “killed” their existing majority — a significant but not
absolute one — by dissolving the lower house.
“I’ve known
Édouard Philippe for an extremely long time, and we said to each other that we
needed to build something else tomorrow,” Mr. Darmanin told LCI television on
Sunday when asked about a recent meeting between the two. “We need to build
what will undoubtedly enable us to win in 2027.”
Aurelien
Breeden is a reporter for The Times in Paris, covering news from France. More
about Aurelien Breeden
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