In her stronghold in northern France, Marine Le Pen will deliver her first campaign speech this Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The far-right candidate for 2027 is relaunching her campaign in Hénin-Beaumont, after a gathering of her party’s MPs in Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais) on Saturday. Leading the polls, she is credited with 34% of first-round voting intentions in every scenario, according to a survey carried out on 8 and 9 September by OpinionWay for Les Échos.
Yet the past few weeks have been marked by a series of mishaps, against a backdrop of alleged friction with the party’s president, Jordan Bardella, including controversy over aid to Ukraine and the publication of a video in which a police officer and RN member makes racist, sexist and conspiracist remarks.
Moreover, Marine Le Pen has still not reacted to the signing of an immigration pact between Jordan Bardella and leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage, which provides, in the event they come to power, for migrants intercepted in British waters to be sent back to France.
What role for Jordan Bardella?
Rumours are multiplying about alleged tensions between Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the candidate for the post of prime minister.
According to the French daily Libération, the president of the National Rally is said to have declared “It’s her or me” on 31 August, while Marine Le Pen is reported to have announced her intention to give a greater role in the campaign to her niece, Marion Maréchal, starting with a speech at the National Rally’s parliamentary gathering in Le Touquet.
During the 2022 presidential campaign, Marion Maréchal backed Éric Zemmour, the leader of the rival far-right party Reconquête, rather than her aunt.
Jordan Bardella has denied any tensions, telling the French broadcaster BFM-TV: “Everything is going very, very well, I assure you. I support her 2,000%”, during a trip to the Ambrosetti Forum, an annual conference on economics and geopolitics held near Milan.
He also said he had an “unbreakable political and personal affinity” with Marine Le Pen, while denying that he wanted to ‘impose’ his line on the party. The fundamental differences between the two leading figures of the National Rally are mainly about economic policy, especially pensions.
According to Bardella, the current French pension system “is not economically sustainable”. He also seems hesitant to have his ‘boss’ turn her proposed public headscarf ban into a core campaign theme. On 31 August he insisted that the aim was not “to impose a dress code”, stressing that a referendum on the issue would be held.
The president of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament also appears more pro-market than Marine Le Pen, who has traditionally been more attached to protectionist measures.
Solidarity with Ukraine
Beyond these internal frictions, the National Rally is also facing disagreements over international issues.
Appearing on BFM-TV on 4 September, Louis Aliot, the party’s vice-president and mayor of Perpignan, was asked about the relevance of aid to Ukraine.
“We turn off the tap. The health system, the education system, the whole economy, everything has been cut to the bone, and yet we still find money to fund more weapons (…) I’m willing to accept that, but who pays for all this? You also have to know how to stop a war”, he replied.
His comments quickly ignited the political debate. On X, Édouard Philippe, the centre-right Horizons party’s candidate for 2027, seized the opportunity to accuse the National Rally of “its support for Putin’s regime”, arguing that “turning off the tap for Ukraine means serving Russia”.
“Weakening Ukraine, as Marine Le Pen wants, means threatening the security of Europe and France. I will do everything to stop her”, he added.
Marine Le Pen hit back within the hour, reminding Emmanuel Macron’s former prime minister that he was in office when the Russian president was “received with great pomp at the Palace of Versailles and then at the Fort of Brégançon”, and that he himself welcomed Dmitry Medvedev, then prime minister, to his home city of Le Havre in June 2019.
National Rally rocked by racist police comment scandal
On 8 September, French regional daily Midi Libre released a shocking video, recorded in November 2025. It shows several municipal police officers in Carcassonnemaking racist, sexist and conspiracist comments during a night-time patrol.
The patrol leader, responsible for nearly 90% of the hateful remarks made that evening, is a former paratrooper. He has also volunteered for the National Rally’s internal security service.
He notably escorted Jordan Bardella on several trips, including during the promotional tour for his book, as well as at the launch of the National Rally’s municipal election campaign.
The officer in question was expelled from the National Rally on Wednesday. Jordan Bardella, for his part, described his comments as “despicable” on Friday.
The Carcassonne public prosecutor’s office also announced on Wednesday the suspension of the four municipal police officers who appear in the video.
