Far right politician Jordan Bardella can "feel the wave rising" ahead of the European elections in June 2024, Ednews reports via Le Monde. Of course, Nicolas Sarkozy used the same expression in April 2012, 10 days before being edged out in the first round of the presidential election by François Hollande. But this time, everything is leading the head of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) to hope that he can "ride this populist wave, which is arriving in France a few years late" and which he believes will topple "Emmanuel Macron's passive presidency [in the 2027 presidential election], just as Donald Trump toppled Barack Obama's [in 2016]."
As early as the end of September, he was predicting a score of 30% for his party at the European elections, five points above the most optimistic polls. The latest surveys have brought it closer to a bar that the RN has never crossed in a national election, setting aside the run-offs of presidential elections, where they have always lost. The party's record dates back to 2015, during the regional elections (27.1% nationally) held a month after the November attacks in Paris.
For the June ballot, Bardella is counting on the momentum of the useful vote in the final stretch of the campaign to fulfill a triple objective: regaining the first place achieved in 2019, by once again outstripping Macron's camp; achieving a score that makes a lasting impression; and permanently weakening its direct competitors, Reconquête (far right) and Les Républicains (conservative), by pushing below the fateful 5% threshold which allows for entry in the European Parliament.