"Welcome home!" In the early afternoon of August 30, 2023, the sub-prefect of Saint-Denis extended his hand to Jordan Bardella, who, wearing a tie and polished shoes, had come to defend the ideas of the far right at the invitation of Emmanuel Macron. At these "Saint-Denis meetings," as the behind-closed-doors dialogue between the French president and party leaders was called, there were 16 participants in total. But only one, the young president of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, truly felt like he was on home turf, in the Paris suburb where he spent part of his youth.

In the heart of the emblematic city of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, one of the poorest areas in France, it was the second time Bardella passed an exam within the walls of the building where Macron has hosting, a girl school for children of Légion d'Honneur recipients. A decade earlier, Bardella had passed his high school baccalauréat on the same premises. This time, he was being awarded a certificate of competence and honorability. Until then, the young man, 27 at the time, was only the heir apparent to RN figurehead Marine Le Pen, the party's sole representative in talks with the government. Now, he was legitimized as number one.

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