Accused of fleeing the debates, Jordan Bardella awaits the big confrontation with undisguised impatience. The head of the RN list, arch-favorite for these European electionsgiven around 31% in the polls, faces, this Thursday, May 2, Valerie Hayer in debate on BFMTV. An opponent of the majority who is much more struggling (around 17%), who sees a comeback behind his back the threat Raphaël Glucksmann, dynamic in the polls.
This debate is “an important meeting”, Bardella said this Wednesday in Perpignan, before his big meeting. Simple reason: he more or less embodies what the young boss of the RN has been trying to tell since the start of his campaign, last September, a “mid-term election”, which would allow the RN to feel itself growing wings in anticipation of 2027. So, the frontist boss decided to take things seriously. He surrounded himself with those who matter, Monday morning at the Parisian headquarters of the RN, for a three-hour meeting dedicated mainly to this match.
Around him: his campaign director Alexandre Loubet, the secretary general of the RN group in the Assembly Renaud Labaye and his deputy president Jean-Philippe Tanguy, Philippe Olivier, MEP and brother-in-law-adviser of Marine Le Pen. And the boss herself obviously. As a bonus: two members of the “Horaces”, this secret cabinet made up of experts of all kinds (senior civil servants, business executives, etc.), to shield Bardella on substantive issues.
“It will not be project against project, but assessment against project”
The bottom line is precisely what Valérie Hayer’s teams will try to highlight on Thursday evening. “It’s not a balance sheet that he has, it’s a filing for bankruptcy,” says a figure from the majority. “It will not be project against project, but assessment against project,” replied Jordan Bardella in front of around thirty journalists this Wednesday before his meeting. To decide between them, BFMTV has planned several sequences. Some current questions. Then discussions on four themes: Ukraine and defense, agriculture and ecology, purchasing power, energy and social Europe. And finally immigration. The two candidates will conclude using a carte blanche, each of the two opponents being able to choose their favorite theme.
Still largely unknown to the general public, Valérie Hayer is also unknown to the National Rally. Several RN executives reviewed his debate with Marion Maréchal on April 8. “I wanted to observe his posture, listen to him. Is it more technical or political? » confides a participant. This will, in fact, be one of the issues of this debate. A stylistic opposition between the television beast and the technician. Outsider, a position not necessarily so delicate as such a debate approaches. “Expectations regarding our candidate are low,” said a campaign player. All we need is an uppercut that will make Bardella stagger…”
Can Valérie Hayer, who has been on TV sets for a short time, achieve this? Many say that his mastery of the files could greatly help him. “She does what she can with her media experience,” says a deputy. Given the number of big names who refused to go and the competition of hideouts since the start of the campaign, she has no lessons to learn. »
“We have to go slowly, staying on the bottom”
Those around her dream of seeing her demonstrate the “incompetence and superficiality” of Jordan Bardella. Among the angles of attack identified within the majority, of course, the great discretion of the head of the list in the European Parliament but also the votes of his troops. “How can you be credible when you do not vote for the recovery plan, when you say you are against immigration but you vote against the migration pact? » asks a majority leader. But, they swear, the preparation for this meeting has not taken up the activity of the last few days. “We are working on the moment seriously. But we’re not going to stop campaigning for a one-hour debate either. »
Within the Bardella team, we say to ourselves that we probably shouldn’t be too aggressive. “She’s not irritating, not arrogant. So there’s no point in getting into him. You have to go slowly, staying on the bottom,” analyzes our participant in the video session. “We want to thwart his arguments about the fact that Jordan is not working, to show that he is solid on the merits of his cases,” supports an RN executive, present at Monday’s preparation. “You have to be careful with the words you choose…”, Bardella had said to the small audience that day. Just to avoid any sexism lawsuit.
But the debate that the president of the National Rally is most looking forward to is the one between him and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Reluctant at first, the Prime Minister decided to spend the second in a campaign which did not take off. Some majority executives already fear the worst. “The French like electoral duels,” assures one of them. It’s a challenge not to be overtaken by Glucksmann. In a three-way match, the third always ends up disappearing. »
