French far-right leader Marine Le Pen begins an appeal in a Paris court on Tuesday that will determine whether she can run in the 2027 presidential election, or whether her protégé Jordan Bardella will instead take up the challenge.
Ms Le Pen, three times a presidential candidate and one of France's most popular politicians, is currently barred from public office over a conviction for misusing EU funds.
Mr Bardella, 30, an MEP and president of the National Rally (RN) party, would be the obvious stand-in if the appeal does not go in Ms Le Pen's favour.
As he gave a new year's greetings in Paris recently, Mr Bardella appeared irritated by questions asking if he would replace his political mentor as presidential candidate.
"Who doubts my capacities?” Mr Bardella said on the question of his youth and inexperience of international politics. A recent poll shows that nearly half of respondents thought he had more chance of becoming president than Ms Le Pen, who polled at 18 per cent. A third said they had no opinion on the question.
Ms Le Pen has long viewed herself as France's next president, with Mr Bardella as prime minister. Although Mr Bardella insists that he is not a candidate for the presidency, the talk in Paris is now of a scenario in which he is president and Ms Le Pen holds no executive office because of her legal troubles. The sitting president, lame duck Emmanuel Macron, has served the maximum two terms.
Reversal of roles
It is a dramatic reversal of roles for Mr Bardella, an obscure figure until a few years ago. He owes his entire political career to Ms Le Pen, the political heir and daughter of the late Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front in the 1970s with Nazi sympathisers.
Mr Bardella has helped Ms Le Pen remodel the party to create the RN and please mainstream voters, particularly young people. Between them, they lead the party, Mr Bardella as president, and Ms Le Pen as head of the party's group in Parliament – the single largest bloc, with 119 MPs out of 577 in total.
“Whether out of pragmatism or realism, RN supporters are moving on. The electoral future seems to lie with Jordan Bardella, while Marine Le Pen embodies more the party's history,” Eddy Vautrin-Dumaine, studies director at pollster Verian, told daily Le Monde.
Critics regularly cite Mr Bardella's absence from the European Parliament and the fact that he is a product of RN politics, did not complete his university studies and has never held executive power or a regular job.
Mocked
This appeared to be highlighted in a viral video last month, in which Mr Bardella was mocked in a live TV show by Roselyne Bachelot, a former right-wing minister, who described him as a sycophant, and journalist Lea Salame, who criticised his lack of imagination.
Ms Bachelot and Mr Bardella were both asked to come up with questions for world leaders. To former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who wrote a prison memoir after a short incarceration for corruption, Mr Bardella said: "Where does he get all this energy?”
To US President Donald Trump, Mr Bardella repeated: "Where does he get all this energy?” causing laughter among other participants. To Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ms Bachelot interjected: "Where does he get all this energy?", causing further laughter in the studio at Mr Bardella's expense.
Mr Bardella, who told Ms Bachelot she was being "inelegant”, answered on Mr Putin: "How far will he go?”
Yet beyond TV shows, French people like Mr Bardella. To his 1.3 million followers on Instagram, he regularly posts videos accompanied by electronic music. They include crowds taking selfies with him on a book tour across France. His latest book, What The French People Want, was a bestseller of the autumn literary season in France, selling 200,000 copies.
Its cover seeks to convey seriousness and intellect – some say, presidential power – as Mr Bardella poses, wearing a dark blue suit, in an office with dark wooden bookshelves in the background, looking down at a white sheet of paper.
A poll in November showed that he was the favourite in the event of a presidential election, ahead of Ms Le Pen. In March, she was sentenced to a four-year prison term, with half suspended, and a five-year ban from public office, after she was found guilty in a Paris court of embezzlement of public funds.
Her appeal is scheduled to end on February 11. She will have 11 defendants and the party by her side after several others did not challenge their conviction. Ms Le Pen, who has denied wrongdoing, is expected to testify next week.
The Paris court of appeal’s decision is expected by the summer.
