The proposed formula was the classic American *ticket*. An electoral tandem that had to cover a broader ideological spectrum than that of the candidate herself, which was very limited to the classic voter of the National Rally (RN). Marine Le Pen, president, and Jordan Bardella, prime minister: two ways of seeing the far right. The latter’s approach is closer to the establishment, economic power, a certain moderation or calculation in specific attacks on immigration policy. The former’s is more social, radical, anti-European, and confrontational towards Islam. But on July 7, at the Paris Court of Appeal, a crack was heard in the relationship. And the political rentrée has not been as harmonious as expected.
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Bardella, frustrated for not ultimately being the candidate for the Élysée Palace when Le Pen decided to run despite having been convicted on appeal for embezzlement last July, has frowned several times in recent weeks. But the last few days have revealed several frictions and a certain personal distance. It is hard to see them together at events. He didn’t even accompany her to the presidential debate with six other candidates organized by the employers’ association at Roland-Garros. Even though it is the world Bardella best connects with. Or maybe because of that.
Business leaders still do not fully trust the party leader, whom they find still very radical, and see in the young protégé — who once had better poll ratings than her — someone closer. Differences have become evident on issues such as interventionism in state matters, budgetary obligations with the EU, fiscal justice, or pension reform (Le Pen wants to lower the retirement age again, and Bardella even suggested eliminating a specific age). But also on the ban on Muslim women wearing the headscarf, an old controversy that has been hovering fruitlessly and electorally over the French scene for decades. That’s not all.
Bardella’s circle also offered a different version from his mentor’s about the circumstances of the sudden and violent departure of his main advisor, François Durvye (which became known just as Le Pen was taking the stage at Roland-Garros). A man who precisely forged Bardella’s rapprochement to the business world and who, according to Libération, had advised him to run for election as well after Marine Le Pen’s decision to continue despite the Court of Appeal’s conviction. “Go out and say you’re running,” he supposedly suggested. A challenge to his mentor that never materialized.
The suggestion, however, quickly reached the leader’s ears and, according to the same outlet, motivated the decision to cut off his head and exclude him from the campaign. “François has made a personal decision and we respect it,” Le Pen’s number two dodged the issue. And here the two clans, according to some close sources, parted even more.
Bardella felt like a candidate for eight months, the entire time Le Pen was very close to political disqualification. And now it seems he does not want to be the secondary figure he was before 2022. The day after Le Pen’s decision to continue the race for the Élysée, his face showed unbearable tension. “It is natural that each of us has our own character; sometimes we have sensitivities, words, or formulations that may differ,” he once again asserted during a televised interview on Saturday, August 29, at the Châlons-en-Champagne fair, where he celebrated the staging of his political season kickoff.
More cracks opened publicly last Sunday, although the underlying frictions had been brewing for some time. It happened after the intervention of Jean-Philippe Tanguy, RN deputy and Le Pen’s right-hand man in the National Assembly, on a television program. The party’s Economy head then stated that the RN intended to “combat Islamist ideology” and to “penalize the use of the veil, also in solidarity with all the women in the world who are forced to wear it and who die for having that freedom.”
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The proposal was not clear. But then he insisted: “If there are women who wear the veil when it is prohibited, they will receive a fine.” And he added that the proposal defended by the RN — especially the wing closest to Marine Le Pen — “has the support of 60% to 70% of the French.” Bardella, like other elected officials, considered at the time that this could be an electoral handicap. “I don’t see it,” he explained during a pre-campaign seminar held in April. “Bardella has a more pragmatic conception of politics and that measure could be very harmful in the campaign,” a party leader told EL PAÍS.
The idea is by no means new within Marine Le Pen’s program. She has proposed it since 2012 and it always seems like a smokescreen to cover other weaknesses of the party before its more radical electorate. But this time it provoked a wave of opposing reactions from the RN candidate’s adversaries, from Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Bruno Retailleau, neither of whom is suspected of any softness towards Islam and immigration. The matter took a complicated turn when several RN leaders, like Andréa Kotarac, qualified the announcement the next day and stated that in reality there would be no “immediate fines for women with veils the day after the elections.”
Jordan Bardella himself entered the debate. “It is not about establishing a dress code police. First, it will be the French who decide whether they want such a measure through a referendum,” he qualified. Marine Le Pen’s hypothetical prime minister then resumed the party’s proposal: to organize a referendum containing several measures against “Islamist ideology” during the five-year term, after the immigration referendum that the RN wants to organize simultaneously with the legislative elections, if it comes to power. In other words, a full political wait-and-see.
Marine Le Pen then tried to close the debate on the social network X. Although the fire had already been set. “I will submit to the French by referendum a major law to fight Islamist ideologies, with numerous forceful measures, including penalizing the Islamist veil in public spaces,” she stated.
At least it’s clear: @EPhilippe_LH admits he failed to properly enforce the law banning the full veil when he was Prime Minister.
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) August 31, 2026
Worse, he also confirms he will do nothing against an Islamist veil that he himself denounced in 2025 as… https://t.co/GpWUl89YSA
Lepenism is a family, a clan that usually maintains blood ties. Children, nephews, partners, and ex-partners. And Bardella entered through the side door, pairing with a niece of Marine. At 22 he was already her spokesperson; at 23, head of the list for the European elections; and president of the party since 26. An excessive youth, even for his promoter who, before being prosecuted, had in mind another timeline to see her successor triumph. Him too. The two figures form a “tandem,” a “duo,” a “harmonious couple,” Tanguy said a few days ago in Le Monde. At least, that was the case until last July 7.
