Jordan Bardella, Digi Mart USA News (France): Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (Rassemblement national), has released a new book in which he sketches out his first “100 days” as prime minister, although he offers few details on his priorities or methods. The book was published on Wednesday and is the third he has issued in two years through Fayard, a publishing house owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
Bardella said on TF1 on Tuesday evening that he is preparing to become head of government. “I want to take the French people with me on this path,” he said, adding that the book is meant to explain who the party is, what its values are and what it would do.
The 31-year-old acknowledged a certain “dizziness” about power and said he had “perhaps felt the blow” after the collapse of his plan to replace Marine Le Pen as candidate, but insisted he had lost none of his determination. He said he would prepare to govern “not in an office, but with the French people,” and his book tour will take him to Hénin-Beaumont, Le Pen’s electoral stronghold, and later to the Var and Hérault departments.
The book also refers to Mediapart revelations about juvenile antisemitic writings, which Bardella denies having authored, and which he describes as the work of a “pack” pursuing him. Much of the content on justice, housing and the budget had already been outlined by Le Pen, and the book gives no timetable for priority measures or for the referendums promised on immigration and the fight against Islamism.
Bardella promised a “new pact of trust and stability” with businesses, to be sealed by a major simplification ordinance that would “remove thousands of pages of unnecessary rules” with “one stroke of the pen, from the start of the term.” He also previewed pension policy, saying the National Rally would return the retirement age to 62 or even 60, with measures such as requiring more work to validate a contribution quarter, two weeks ahead of the detailed reform presentation.
On education, he outlined a plan to make passage from CP to CE1 conditional on reading mastery and to introduce a national examination before entry into collège. He also laid out his views on France’s geopolitical role in the world and in Europe, a posture traditionally associated with the head of state.
Bardella said he has six months to build a majority, a task assigned to him by Marine Le Pen, but he ruled out a new outreach to the right, citing the alliance with Éric Ciotti as having “broken down barriers.” He criticized Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal, and referred to Éric Zemmour and Sarah Knafo as the two egotistical leaders of the Reconquête party.
He also mentioned Bruno Retailleau’s proposal to make chemical castration mandatory for the most dangerous sexual offenders, calling it a debate that deserves to be held.
