The Berlin-RN axis
Berlin sounds out the far-right Rassemblement National leader Jordan Bardella, France’s potential future president. Bardella wants to push back against German dominance in the EU.
PARIS/BERLIN (our own report) – Germany is sounding out Jordan Bardella of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, seeking an understanding in the event of RN’s victory in the French presidential election next April. It was recently revealed that Bardella met with the German ambassador to France in February – the first ever official contact with an RN politician. Bardella announced in an interview with a leading German daily that, following an election victory, he intends to cooperate closely with the German government wherever possible. Migrant and refugee control should, he said, be a key area of cooperation. He praised Germany’s border control policy. Bardella, who leads in polling on next year’s presidential election, is backed by the media empire of the far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Bardella is advised on economic affairs by a close associate of Bolloré’s, Pierre-Édouard Stérin. And the RN leadership is now in talks with a number of leading French business figures, not least the heads of Airbus, TotalEnergies and Renault, along with the CEO of the LVMH luxury goods group, Bernard Arnault, who is the richest non-American in the world. Bardella says he wants reconfigure the European Union and push back against German dominance.
Backed by billionaires
Polls on attitudes to the upcoming French presidential election in April 2027 have, for some time, consistently shown that Jordan Bardella, as the likely RN candidate, will clearly win the first round with more than a third of the vote and is then likely to secure victory in the second round. Some doubts remain, however, especially if he has to face the popular Édouard Philippe in the run-off. Philippe served as the first Prime Minister from 2017 to 2020 under President Emmanuel Macron. In the future election campaign, Bardella can rely on the powerful media empire of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who has used the profits from his industrial conglomerate Groupe Bolloré to buy up all kinds of newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. As the owner he has been steering these media outlets, including the popular TV channel CNews and the legacy weekly ‘Le Journal du dimanche’, towards an ultra-right agenda. Bardella also enjoys the support of billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin. Stérin owes his fortune in part to his investment vehicle, Otium Capital, whose former managing director, François Durvye, stepped down from his post in April to become Bardella advisor on economic issues and the policies to be shaped for next year’s presidential election. These manoeuvres gives the presumed RN candidate access to powerful contacts and significant influence.[1]
‘The interests of the CEOs’
In recent months, Bardella and the long-standing RN leader Marine Le Pen have been meeting repeatedly with leading figures from the French business community. Éric Trappier, CEO of fighter jet manufacturer Dassault Aviation, met with Le Pen and Bardella back in May 2024. And in December 2025, the far-right leaders were speaking with another defence industry player, the chair of the board of directors of the Safran group. Any taboo on talking with Bardella had been dropped by January 2026 when he met with Guillaume Faury, the Airbus Group CEO. Then, in April, Le Pen met for the first time with an exclusive group of top executives, including the heads of TotalEnergies, Renault, Engie, Accor and Bolloré, as well as Bernard Arnault, CEO of the LVMH luxury goods group. With a fortune of around 150 billion US dollars, Arnault is currently the eleventh richest person in the world and the richest non-US citizen.[2] Bardella was received on 20 April by the leaders of France’s major employers’ association, MEDEF, along with other French business organisations representatives.[3] Against the backdrop of this emerging alliance, one billionaire was quoted anonymously as saying that Macron had failed in his economic policy, whereas the RN had now “become neoliberal”. Indeed, “the party that best represents my interests today as a CEO is the RN!”[4]
‘A different Europe’
Following two meetings with the MEDEF leadership and some of the country’s most powerful CEOs, Bardella outlined the key objectives of his economic policy in an interview with ‘Le Journal du dimanche’. He said that an RN government would drastically reduce taxes and all manner of regulations for French companies. As the newly anointed president of France he would, he added, make his first official trip abroad to Brussels. Bardella argued that the EU, not least with its ‘Green Deal’, was creating an excessive regulatory framework that threatened to stifle French companies. The EU was responsible for the crisis in the French economy. Indeed, the EU had reduced France to a mere “variable in trade policy”, and this degradation was, specifically, designed “to serve German interests”.[5] An RN government would “represent our country’s interests” in Brussels so as to “regain comparative advantages” that other states had long enjoyed. In this framework Bardella has announced his intention to create “a different Europe” – “a Europe of intergovernmental cooperation” and “national sovereignty”. This stance is diametrically opposed to the traditional interest of German industry: still hegemonic in Europe, German industry wants the closest possible integration within the EU.
Embassy contacts
Jordan Bardella has now taken some initial steps towards an understanding with Germany on the policies of a future RN government. It was only recently revealed that he met the German Ambassador to France, Stephan Steinlein, back in February. Political observers in France point out that this was the first meeting between a German ambassador and a far-right representative, whether the RN or its predecessor the Front National (FN). Nothing is yet known about the substance of their discussion. The German Embassy in Paris has not provided any further details.[6] Speaking to the Paris-based daily Le Monde, an unnamed member of the German government did, however, state that Germany was seeing “the RN’s transformation into an established party”. The source noted that “the RN is less radical than the AfD and does not constantly reference National Socialism.”[7] Bardella was already received in December by the US Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, whose son Jared Kushner is Donald Trump’s son-in-law and serves as a special envoy of the US administration for alleged peace missions. And, in April, Israel’s Ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka, received Marine Le Pen.
‘Rafale, not F-35s’
Last week, Bardella outlined the main thrust of his thoughts on future Franco-German relations in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He told the paper that he considered close ties between the two countries “essential for securing the independence and strategic autonomy of European nations”.[8] Bardella sees “common ground” with Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz “on the issue of reducing bureaucracy”, “on the need to build a competitive Europe”, and “on migration policy”. On the immigration issue, he praised Germany’s border controls, saying that “national law … must take precedence over European law”. Bardella calls on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to resign. She was, he said, “completely incapable of defending European interests”. He has also announced his intention to lead France “out of NATO’s integrated command structures” after the end of the war in Ukraine, just as Charles de Gaulle once did. At the same time, he supports Franco-German defence projects, but insists that Germany must, for its part, purchase French weapons, such as “Rafale fighter jets, not the American F-35s”. The Rafale is produced by Dassault Aviation. Its CEO, Éric Trappier, has maintained loose contact with the RN for years.
[1] Clément Guillou : François Durvye, nouveau conseiller économique de Jordan Bardella au bilan contesté auprès de Pierre-Edouard Stérin. lemonde.fr 24.04.2026.
[2] Clément Lacombe, Camille Vigogne Le Coat : Marine Le Pen, Bernard Arnault et la crème des grands patrons réunis lors d’un dîner symbolique. novelobs.com 08.04.202.
[3] Agnès Soubiran : ‘Pour l’emporter en 2027, il faut réunir le peuple et les élites’: Jordan Bardella déjeune avec les patrons du Medef. radiofrance.fr 20.04.2026.
[4] Elodie Guéguen : ‘Jordan Bardella est le seul à défendre des positions pro-business’: au cœur du discret rapprochement entre le RN et les grands patrons. franceinfo.fr 30.04.2026.
[5] Jules Torres : Jordan Bardella, président du RN : ‘Je n’ai pas l’entreprise honteuse’. lejdd.fr 25.04.2026.
[6], [7] Elsa Conesa : Jordan Bardella a été reçu par l’ambassadeur d’Allemagne en France, une première pour le président du Rassemblement national. lemonde.fr 08.05.2026.
[8] ‘Wir werden nationales Recht über Europarecht stellen’. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.05.2026.
