French far-right leader Jordan Bardella said Monday, June 24, that his party was ready to govern as he pledged to curb immigration and tackle cost-of-living issues ahead of the country's most divisive election in decades. "In three words: we are ready," the 28-year-old president of the Rassemblement National (RN) told a press conference as he unveiled his party's policy platform.
Bardella, credited with helping the RN clean up its extremist image, has urged voters to give the eurosceptic party an outright majority to allow it to implement its anti-immigration, law-and-order program. "Seven long years of Macronism has weakened the country," he said, vowing to boost purchasing power, "restore order" and change the law to make it easier to deport foreigners convicted of crimes.
He reiterated plans to tighten borders and make it harder for foreigners born on French soil to gain citizenship. "It's been 30 years the French have not been listened to on this subject," he said. Bardella added that the RN would focus on "realistic" measures to curb inflation, primarily by cutting energy taxes.
He also promised a disciplinary "big bang" in schools, including a ban on mobile phones and trialing the introduction of school uniforms, a proposal previously put forward by Macron. On foreign policy, Bardella said the RN opposed sending French troops into Ukraine – as mooted by Macron – but would continue to provide logistical and material support. He said his party, which had close ties to Russia before its invasion of Ukraine, would be "extremely vigilant" in the face of Moscow's attempts to interfere in French affairs.
The election is shaping up as a showdown between the RN and the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), which is dominated by the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI). The NFP has so far refused to say who would be its candidate for prime minister if it wins, with several key figures urging the polarizing LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon to step back.
Bardella claimed the RN, which mainstream parties have in the past united to block, was now the "patriotic and republican" choice faced with what he alleged was the anti-Semitism of Mélenchon's party. LFI , which vocally opposes Israel's war in Gaza and refused to label the October 7 Hamas attacks as "terrorism," strongly denies the charges of anti-Semitism.