we read Jordan Bardella's book (but we recommend another one)

POLITICS – All that for that. 316 long pages of total control on which Jordan Bardella works exclusively to write his legend. In ” What I'm looking for », which comes out this Saturday, November 9 from Fayard, the president of the National Rally invents the selective confession, offering the hackneyed narrative of a (young) man whose political career was imposed on him by a destiny miraculously in agreement with his ideas .

The story is this: it's because he grew up in Saint-Denis, in one of the cities characteristic of these neighborhoods. sensitive “, prey to crime, drug trafficking or Islamism” conqueror » that Jordan Bardella, descendant of Italian immigrants with modest material conditions, was “ called » by politics. As others would take orders. Moreover, this trajectory, presented from the angle of meritocracy – and not from that (more correct) of the rise of apparatchik – does it not allow him to analyze the “ real » like no other aspirant to the highest offices?

Bardella doesn't tell stories, he sells himself

This is the common thread of “ What I'm looking for »: a calibrated introspection aimed at telling a story put at the service of a political ambition. Which, inevitably, often makes reading sluggish, as it is difficult to detect the rare times when Jordan Bardella actually agrees to break through the armor, to escape from this hypercontrol which gives this first work the air of a self-promotional publication. The author does not tell his story. He sells himself, very often obscuring the less glamorous aspects of his career or his political family.

When it doesn't fall from your hands, ” What I'm looking for » sometimes offers surprises that make you smile. Like when, in all seriousness, Jordan Bardella wrote this: “ in politics, sincerity, responsibility and consistency are not options but obligations “. A principle which does not fit well with the (very) numerous programmatic reversals undertaken by him during the legislative campaign (pensions, defense, wind turbines, VAT, ritual slaughter, etc.), but which borders on the comical when we remember that the The party he chairs advocated leaving the euro less than ten years ago.

Entirely devoted to promoting his political good sense and his extraordinary trajectory, the president of the RN piles up contradictions. Thus, page 101, he jokes about the rebels who have “ called to vote for Élisabeth Borne, at the origin of the pension reform that they fought so hard a few months earliert”. Whereas, just a few pages earlier, he praised the alliance sealed with Éric Ciotti… Who nevertheless campaigned in favor of this same pension reform, when it was contested by the RN. On the subject of the former president LR, Jordan Bardella unwittingly offers another nugget to the reader, revealing that he had offered the Ministry of the Armed Forces to Éric Ciotti in the event of victory in the legislative elections. A perspective that the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes welcomed “ with enthusiasm “, even if everyone knows in microcosm that he had managed to escape military service.

Selective memory

In summary, Jordan Bardella does nothing other than offer a story modeled on his ambitions, all while demonstrating a particularly selective memory. Thus, when he accuses his adversaries (including the press) of having played up the “ unfortunate controversy » on the ban on dual nationality, he forgets to mention the exit of the RN deputy Roger Chudeau who judged that Najat Vallaud-Belkacem should never have, because she is French-Moroccan, exercised as Minister of National Education, judging her guilty of a “ dual loyalty.

At other times, one is not far from wondering if Jordan Bardella is not making fun of the reader when he claims that he did not know “ All » of the history of the National Front, « of its founders and even Jean-Marie Le Pen » when he joined. He, who further boasts of having obtained his economic and social baccalaureate with the mention “ Alright » (which implies a minimum of general knowledge) and who claims to have stared at the political archives of the INA during his adolescence. Thus, the book, presented as “ confessions “, is limited to lukewarm storytelling, espousing the normalization objectives of Jordan Bardella who, on several occasions, makes strong nods to Nicolas Sarkozy, whose ability to “bring together the working classes and the conservative bourgeoisie ».

However, apart from a few unverifiable anecdotes which are, moreover, not of much interest, and murderous barbs addressed to Emmanuel Macron, those who would like to know more about the president of the RN could turn more to “ The Winning Machine », the investigation by journalist Tristan Berteloot published by Seuil in September. In this work, we learn that “ Jordan Bardella's life was much less painful than he claims “, having for example benefited from a ” luxury apartment that his father lends him in the small, wealthy town of Deuil-la-Barre » and circulated « in the Smart that dad gave him, to avoid traveling on the RER “. An episode which is swept away in a few words (and very partially) in “ What I'm looking for », in which the ambitious man dwells especially on his mother's meager means. Jordan Bardela also devotes a small part of his book to trashing the author of this investigation, calling him “ subsidized notebook protected from risks ».

Printed in 150,000 copies, the work which opens modestly on a quote from Napoleon is a pure communication exercise, supposed to demonstrate that the RN's accession to power is inexorable. As evidenced by this extract, a bit honeyed, in which, during a cruise off the coast of Fort Brégançon, he probes Marine Le Pen to find out if she imagines herself one day in this residence of the Presidents of the Republic. “ The look into the distance, his response, simple, determined, beautiful: “I’m convinced of it”. Marine's courage obliges me. His incandescent stoicism too.” If he has to…

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