Jordan Bardella candidate, exit Marine Le Pen… A poll from the circle of billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin sows discord in the RN

Has Pierre-Édouard Stérin decided to get rid of Marine Le Pen in favor of Jordan Bardella ? This is the question that is agitating the National Rally (RN) following the publication of a poll by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), commissioned by Hexagone – a think tank created in 2024 and financed by billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin – published this Monday, May 5.

This study, carried out on a panel of 10,000 respondents, poses different configurations for the 2027 presidential election. And if Marine Le Pen, recently found guilty of embezzlement of public funds , is present in the final version, the initial order from Hexagone was to test only Jordan Bardella as Frédéric Dabi, director general of Ifop, explains to Le Monde .

On April 27, the think tank announced on its social networks the upcoming publication of a "major exclusive survey of voting intentions for the 2027 presidential election." The visual illustrating the publication features 14 personalities, ranging from Nathalie Arthaud, spokesperson for Lutte Ouvrière, to Chirac's Dominique de Villepin and Bruno Retailleau, the current Minister of the Interior. Marine Le Pen , for her part, is notably absent, while Jordan Bardella, president of the RN, is present. This is logical, since in this survey, he is being tested as a putative candidate for the far-right party.

Enough to make RN MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy see red. "I had to intervene in an attempt not to test Marine Le Pen in a poll, to create controversy and weaken the national camp which is winning," he revealed on Monday, May 5, a few hours before the publication of the famous poll, on CNews and Europe 1.

Very angry, the parliamentarian even became threatening: "I will not let this happen (...) to a certain number of lobbies, people who have no interest, for their dirty business, in Marine Le Pen restoring order in France and finally defending our compatriots. We had to intervene to protect ethics and democracy, because polls are sometimes, and even often, a political weapon to try to manipulate French women and men."

A successful pressure move, since, according to Le Monde , Ifop is relaunching a survey of 2,000 people on three hypotheses including Marine Le Pen. It is not certain, however, that the RN's marine supporters really appreciated the final result... According to the poll, in the event of a second round against Édouard Philippe, Jordan Bardella comes out much better than Marine Le Pen, playing on an equal footing with Emmanuel Macron's former Prime Minister, while the former presidential candidate comes in second place. Enough to fuel a little more a possible war of the leaders at the RN...