Mass migration will be the death of French civilisation and Islamic totalitarianism is seeking to “conquer France”, was the message from populist leader Jordan Bardella during the National Rally’s final campaign gathering ahead of the European Parliament elections.
More than 5,500 supporters of the populist right-wing National Rally (RN) flocked to the Dome of Paris arena on Sunday as the party’s president and the top candidate of the party’s election list, 28-year-old firebrand Jordan Bardella.
Receiving a rock star reception, Bardella cast this week’s European Parliament elections in stark terms, warning that French civilisation itself is at stake if the open borders agenda of Brussels and Paris is not reversed, public broadcaster France24 reported.
“Our civilisation can die because the migratory submersion will have changed our morals, our customs, our ways of life. In countless neighbourhoods, the French no longer recognise the France that saw them grow up,” he lamented.
Arguing that it is imperative to “preserve our way of life” in the face of mass migration, Bardella said that France risks empowering foreign systems, warning that “Islamic totalitarianism wishes to conquer France to impose its rules here.”
“We are standing in the face of erasure and disintegration,” the National Rally leader said.
This warning was echoed by former RN presidential candidate and leader of the party in the French National Assembly, Marine Le Pen, who said on Sunday: “The issue of these elections is the disappearance of France. The nation or its dilution.”
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 2: Marine Le Pen, President of the National Rally group in the National Assembly, joins Jordan Bardella, President of the National Rally (Rassemblement National), at the final rally before the upcoming European Parliament election on June 9th, held at Le Dôme de Paris – Palais des Sports, on June 2, 2024., France, on June 2, 2024, in Paris, France. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The message against mass migration from Bardella has clearly struck a cord in France, with a survey last week from Ipsos for Le Monde finding that his National Rally party is on pace to secure 33 per cent of the vote when France heads to the polls on Sunday to select the next European Parliament.
This is more than double the support for Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance (RE) list, which is only projected to secure 16 per cent of the vote. Meanwhile, fellow anti-mass migration party Reconquête is polling at around 5 per cent, taking the total populist vote to around four in ten.
Strikingly for the National Rally, its support has surged among younger voters, who have traditionally steered clear of the right-wing party. According to Ipsos, 34 per cent of voters under 30 are planning on voting RN, the highest of any party. This climbs even higher for those between the ages of 22 and 25, with 38 per cent backing the populist party.
Bardella has been credited with bridging the gap with his adept social media strategy on Instagram and TikTok with a message focussing on the economic hardships faced by younger and working-class people as a result of mass migration, the green agenda, and the globalist policies of Brussels and Paris.
An attendee at the event holds a sign that reads “the youth with Bardella” during the grand Rassemblement National meeting with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella at the Dome de Paris in Paris, France on June 02, 2024. (Photo by Victoria Valdivia / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP) (Photo by VICTORIA VALDIVIA/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
The party has also leaned in hard on the personal charm and charisma of the 28-year-old politician, with France24 noting that the campaign event on Sunday felt more like a “concert” rather than a political rally, reporting: “The presence, on Sunday in Paris, of very many young people, and particularly young girls, could lead us to believe this. As well as the ‘Jordaaaannn!’ and the ‘I love you!’ shouted at the top of their lungs and interrupting his speech as during a concert.”
One 18-year-old girl told the broadcaster: “It’s my first meeting, I wanted to see what it was like and, above all, I wanted to see Jordan Bardella… He is someone eloquent, who knows how to speak to young people with words that we understand… And what’s more, he’s handsome.”
Young attendees also rejected the media characterisation of the National Rally as “far-right”, telling the broadcaster that the message of the party is not radical but merely just “right”.
Picking up on the theme, Marine Le Pen declared: “I see a lot of young people in the room. I tell the youth to go and vote. If the youth votes, it’s France that wins. You are the groundswell, the great current which has long travelled underground, sometimes repressed, sometimes dammed. But the dikes of political correctness are giving way one after the other.”