Candidates for the presidency do not campaign with running-mates. That old rule, designed to keep options open, has been broken by Marine Le Pen nearly four years before the next election.
Le Pen, who is figurehead of the right-wing National Rally and is being tipped to win in 2027, has anointed as her future prime minister Jordan Bardella, the young protege who has become a potential rival since she made him party president 11 months ago.
Bardella, a Sorbonne university dropout who has just turned 28, was supposed to manage the “family firm” while Le Pen focused on parliamentary leadership and her fourth run for the presidency.
The sharp-suited new face of the old hard right insists that he is loyal to his 55-year-old boss
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