“The National Rally will finish ahead, but if we can turn the race into a direct confrontation between us and them, we could fare well,” a Renaissance member of Parliament, who was granted anonymity to discuss campaign strategies, told POLITICO. “The nationalist vs. globalist divide must be at the heart of the campaign. We need to make this a civilizational issue.”
Renaissance has been pulling out all the stops to portray the National Rally (RN) as an extremist force: highlighting its ties to Russia, anti-EU leanings and alliances with extremist parties abroad.
To that end, Renaissance has put the spotlight on controversy surrounding the RN’s German partner. Members of the AfD, whose MEPs sit in the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament alongside the RN’s, took part in a clandestine meeting of right-wing extremists in which “remigration” plans to deport foreigners and “unassimilated” citizens were discussed — a policy which the National Rally officially rejects. When news of the AfD meeting broke, it prompted widespread outrage and mass protests across Germany.
Le Pen and Bardella later met with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel to discuss the matter and ask for an explanation. The National Rally has not, at this point, broken ties with one of its only partners at the European level.
“Tell me who you associate with, I’ll tell you who you are,” Valérie Hayer, , the lead candidate for the pro-Macron list, wrote in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), in which she accused the RN and its allies of “seeking to destroy European values.”
The RN is also being targeted for its alleged ties to Russia — a longstanding accusation against the party which Macron pointed to in both his presidential campaigns, citing a €6 million loan the party was given by a Russian company. The controversial loan has since been paid off.
In June last year, a French National Assembly investigative committee on foreign interference labeled the National Rally, whose 2022 presidential manifesto called for France to pull out of NATO’s integrated command structure, as a “drive belt” for Moscow.
RN officials have said such accusations, including those contained in a recent Washington Post investigation into Russian interference in French affairs, are part of a “cabal” against the party.
“The National Rally has a pro-Russia line, all their votes in the EU parliament have shown this,” Nathalie Loiseau, who ran against Bardella in the 2019 European election, told POLITICO.
The RN has tried harder to distance itself from the Kremlin since invading Ukraine two years ago.
Bardella and other National Rally MEPs voted for an EU resolution to condemn Russia’s aggression against Ukraine immediately the start of the invasion, but later abstained on a vote to provide financial assistance to Ukraine, and again last June on a resolution mentioning Russian disinformation efforts in the EU.
Hayer accused Bardella and the RN of flip-flopping on issues including France’s participation in the European Union and suffering from “political schizophrenia.”
The criticisms lobbed at Bardella sometimes hit a personal tone. “In his meetings and interviews, I’m appalled by the shallowness of Bardella’s rhetoric,” Loiseau said. “I see a form arrogance and overconfidence.”
Le Pen’s heir
None of the attacks against Bardella have stuck so far, especially those on Russia.
Mathieu Gallard, a research director at polling firm Ipsos, told POLITICO that the National Rally’s positions on Russia isn’t the first thing that most voters identify the party with, even if there may be some “hesitant voters who are put off (by them).”
“It’s unlikely to lead to Bardella losing points and could at most hinder his momentum,” he said.
Bardella has taken extra steps to avoid appearing pro-Russian. In an interview last year with l’Opinion, he said he regretted that the French political class, RN included, had not been quicker to grasp the threat Moscow represented.
“There was a collective naiveté about Putin’s ambitions,” Bardella said.