EDIT from February 26, 2024: Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella are present at the start of the week at the Agricultural Show. According to an Ipsos poll, published this Sunday, the two men are the politicians inspiring the most confidence for the future among the elected officials of the new generation. On this occasion, we suggest you (re)read this recent article.
They are young, popular, and already considered the future champions of their camp. Jordan Bardella, 28, and Gabriel Attal, 34, are sometimes compared for their meteoric rise in the political world. For several years now, the two “gunslingers” have been confronting each other through the media or on television sets. The head of the National Rally and the Prime Minister once again clashed this Thursday over the agricultural crisis which is shaking the country. 20 minutes therefore looked at the rivalry between the two ambitious people, by concocting a duel in the sun, western style.
Ace of the trigger: tie
Knowing how to make the gun talk was essential to being respected in the Far West. In politics too, gunslinger talent can prove useful. Jordan Bardella and Gabriel Attal are regulars at punchlines murders to harm their opponents. Both men are also recognized as formidable debaters, even among their opponents. “Bardella, in his genre, is a real talent, a strong guy. He has no qualms,” François Patriat, the boss of the Renaissance senators, recently told us. During their on-set clashes – already six times since 2019 – neither has really taken precedence over the other. Equality therefore, before new games for the Europeans.
Experience: Attal advantage
The two men already have a few trinkets in their bag. Jordan Bardella won the 2019 European elections by leading the National Rally list. For a little over a year, he has also taken over as head of the party.
But Gabriel Attal has his hands directly in the dirt, as a Macronist MP likes to point out: “Bardella feeds on the absence of results, what record has he had? in the European Parliament, where he almost never sits? Attal brings something concrete to the French, it’s incomparable.” After having been minister on several occasions (Youth, spokesperson, Budget and National Education), he has been the new head of Emmanuel Macron’s government for a month. Point for Attal.
Character construction: Equality
The American West is full of historical figures who have managed to build their “legend”. Here again, politics does not escape the construction of the personal story and the highlighting of the ordeals experienced. Jordan Bardella has often talked about his youth in an HLM in Seine-Saint-Denis. “He was confronted at a very young age with precariousness and difficult life in the suburbs. He built himself on his own, he is not a petty bourgeois who climbed the ladder thanks to his network,” says RN deputy Julien Odoul.
Gabriel Attal said last November that he had suffered “a flood of insults and insults” at “the end of middle school” to better illustrate his fight against school harassment. He also spoke about the loss of his father and the difficulties in talking to him about his homosexuality on the same show. Equality.
Notoriety: Bardella advantage
Jordan Bardella and Gabriel Attal generally enjoy good popularity in public opinion. Din the latest personality dashboard policies of Ifop, published this Tuesday, the boss of the RN is in eighth place with 44% favorable opinions (+3 points). The new Prime Minister is first in the ranking at 53% (+1). Yes, but now, the RN MEP achieved a feat at the end of the year by rising directly to 30th place among the French’s favorite personalities (between Alain Souchon and Mylène Farmer), and first politician in this top 50. So (slight) Bardella advantage.
Lonesome cowboy: Bardella advantage
The young wolves do not yet have the freedom to chart their own course. Jordan Bardella remains under the leadership of Marine Le Pen, already a candidate for the 2027 presidential election. And “Gabriel Attal embodies the Macron generation”, hastened to recall the Elysée a few hours after his appointment as Prime Minister, just to keep hand over the destiny of the ambitious young man. The fact remains that the RN MEP seems slightly ahead in the emancipation of the mentor, as when he implicitly criticized his party’s former supporters of Russia, before being reframed by Marine Le Pen.
Avoiding falls from a horse: Attal advantage
Because they control their communication as much as possible, they are not really used to going off the road (or falling off a horse). Often targeted for its links to the sulphurous “GUD connection”, Jordan Bardella, however, made a funny mistake for his first year at the head of the RN by getting bogged down in a controversy over the anti-Semitic outbursts of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a few days before a major march against anti-Semitism in Paris . He himself finally had to recognize “an awkwardness”. Few examples of this type for Gabriel Attal, except a little about the “Mahorais” during a trip to Mayotte and a “mea culpa” on teacher upgrades. Point Attal.