Signs of a romance between a French populist and an Italian princess have led to political controversy and fevered speculation about a new trans-Alpine dynasty.
Jordan Bardella, 30, the chairman of the National Rally and favourite for next year’s presidential election if he runs instead of his mentor Marine Le Pen, left a Paris gala last week in the company of Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
The princess, 22, is the eldest child of Prince Carlo, one of two Bourbon claimants to the defunct throne of Naples, and a socialite and influencer who is said to have met Bardella in Monaco last spring.
Prince Carlo and Princess Camilla with their daughters Princess Maria Carolina, left, and Princess Maria Chiara
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Bardella, a slick media operator with fierce control over his brand, was assumed to be honing his appeal by appearing before cameras with the Italian princess at the soirée while Le Pen, whom he has begun to eclipse, was defending herself at the start of an appeal against her conviction last year for embezzling EU funds.
“Obviously, he’s doing it to make himself look presidential, appearing with a first lady while the trial gets under way,” a right-wing politician told Le Parisien. La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, saw the princess’s appearance as part of the National Rally’s drive to woo traditional, conservative voters. “Will an Italian princess be the next first lady of France?” asked Adnkronos, an Italian news agency.
Le Monde, which is hostile to the National Rally, asked: “What game is Jordan Bardella playing? Why did he appear alongside the Italian heiress of a ‘royal’ family, among the wealthiest of the international jet set, during a party that brought together Paris’s elite?”
The outing of Bardella, as the son of Italian immigrants who trades on his humble upbringing in Paris housing estates, with the princess “is quite a slap in the face of history”, Le Monde said, adding: “Bardella claims to be the voice of a ‘forgotten people’ and the ‘authentic spokesperson for a France despised by the elites’, yet in appearing in public with the heiress to a fortune worth several hundred million euros … his choice has not gone unnoticed.”
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The National Rally hit back at Le Monde. “This oozes social contempt against Jordan Bardella and stoops to tabloid-style gossip, trampling on his private life,” Alexandre Loubet, a Rally MP, tweeted. Pierre-Romain Thionnet, an MEP for the party, called Le Monde’s comment “shameful and obsessive”.
Marine Le Pen and Bardella in Paris, 2024
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Bardella’s calculated “video-opp” has broken with the secrecy he has cultivated around his private life. Since ending a relationship in 2023 with Nolwenn Olivier, Marine Le Pen’s niece, he has not been publicly linked with anyone. Last June he told a TV interviewer that he was not gay and said only that his dream woman would be clever and a brunette.
Interest in Bardella is intense because of the prospect that the appeal judges will uphold Le Pen’s conviction and maintain a five-year bar from standing for election, ruling her out of the April 2027 elections. She has anointed Bardella as her replacement. Opinion polls show him to be the most popular politician in France and the easy favourite to win, although many analysts believe his youth and inexperience will deter voters once the campaign starts.