Jordan Bardella does not look like the typical European
politician.
But at the age of just 23, the rising star
of the French far-right is top of the list of candidates
for Marine Le Pen's Rassemblent National for elections
to the European Parliament in May.
Opinion polls suggest the party, which
was called the Front National when
it was run by Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen,
will beat that of the liberal President Emmanuel Macron,
and be the most popular among all the French parties
in the European vote.
In an interview with the FT, Bardella
said the idea was to team up with the other rightwing
nationalist parties that have risen in the EU
in recent years in the UK, Italy, and eastern Europe,
to try to reduce the power of the European Commission,
and eventually make the EU no more than a secretariat
for a club of nation states.
Yet the real goal of Marine Le Pen and Bardella is to come
to power at home in France, on a programme of trade
protectionism and adamant opposition to immigration.
The RN has benefited from weeks of so-called gilets jaunes,
or yellow vest protests against President
Macron and his government.
Marine Le Pen's poor performance in a debate with Macron
sank any chance she might have had
of defeating him in the 2017 presidential election.
Even so, an overwhelmingly white party,
that for decades seemed unelectable in modern France
because of its reputation for racism,
has been revived by her drive to improve its image,
and to bring in new blood.
Bardella said he hoped his party's opposition
to immigration would help the RN, both in domestic politics
and in the European vote in May.
Bardella and the RN are likely to do well
in the European elections, because the results are based
on proportional representation.
And voters often want to make a protest vote
by choosing an extreme party they might
shun in the national poll.
The question after that is whether Marine Le Pen's party
can ride Europe's populist wave to take power
in a French domestic election.