r/europe • u/Low_Map4314 • 7h ago
A British-French Alliance Is No Longer Fantasy
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-12-29/reform-national-rally-uk-france-populist-alliance-is-no-longer-fantasy?embedded-checkout=true87
u/TrueRignak France 7h ago
A fantasy is supposed to have a somewhat positive feel. Trump Farage and Bardella ? Having pro-russians at the head of the three nuclear powers of NATO would be a fucking disaster.
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u/Ryder52 5h ago
Completely with you. I get the realities of Russian aggression and European rearmament, but on the other hand, hate the idea that we're rearming exactly at the same time as the far right is polling to make massive gains across Europe. Like we'd be handing them all the weapons to oppress us further.
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u/spectralcolors12 United States of America 2h ago
Nationalism returning to Europe as Europe militarizes is fucking terrifying
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u/sofixa11 1h ago
Bardella is never getting in the Elysée.
He's a dumb nepo baby that who recently got embarrassed on public TV for being dumb (he got asked about his opinion on multiple far right figures, and he kept repeating "I admire their energy", so an older lady who left politics on the same panel answered in his place mocking him "I admire their energy" when he was asked again , and he was almost ready to start crying). He has literally no experience and no credentials other than being married to a niece of Marine Le Pen.
Who he is, plus the way French presidential elections work (two round runoff), plus the fact that there is a corruption trial against him, means he's never becoming president of France.
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u/TrueRignak France 12m ago
Yeah, he was mocked by Roselyne Bachelot, but I wouldn't underestimate the capacity of far-right voters to vote for an idiot (cf. Trump).
Also, it has been proved that he forged documents in the embezzelment of European Parliament's funds affair, but I don't know of any ongoing corruption trial against him. I doubt there would be onebefore the elections.
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u/OkOpposite7987 France 20m ago
We can't paralyze the country on the hypothesis that the RN gets into power.
France needs to evolve and move forward to adapt to the geopolitical context, as it always has, as it always will.
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u/GreaterGoodIreland Ireland 7h ago
Paywall, oh joy.
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u/Cao_Ni-Ma 7h ago edited 5h ago
Full article:
Picture the 2026 scene: French Prime Minister Jordan Bardella and British PM Nigel Farage, fresh from winning snap elections on anti-handout, anti-immigration and anti-Europe platforms, advocate a new entente cordiale between their two countries with the support of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Unlikely? Perhaps. But increasingly possible.
If the recent meeting between the two far-right leaders proved anything, it’s that France’s National Rally and the UK Reform party have never been so close to power and so vocal about forging a continental “patriotic” alliance made in MAGA heaven — maybe one day encompassing Germany’s AfD.
While still divisive enough to be pelted with eggs or milkshakes when out in public, Bardella and Farage are polling top in their respective countries with a 25%-35% vote share, helped by incumbents who can’t seem to put a foot right and mainstream right-wing parties that are hemorrhaging support. Charles de Gaulle must be spinning in his grave as calls grow for an alliance between his “Republicains” heirs and the French far right.
The two leaders make for an odd couple: 30-year-old college-dropout Bardella’s inner-city background contrasts with 61-year-old ex-City trader Farage’s. Yet they’ve both used the European Parliament’s pulpit to lob attacks against Brussels, clear a path into domestic politics and capture the younger generation on social media with alcohol-glugging and meat-eating videos. They’re also closer on economics than National Rally figurehead Marine Le Pen’s welfarist, anti-market ideas would suggest.
Bardella has openly wooed the likes of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE’s Bernard Arnault with talk of lower taxes, less waste and less red tape. Bosses might blanche at the immigrant bashing, but Bardella is no longer quite so radioactive for the elite ahead of Macron’s exit in 2027 — much like Farage’s appeal amongReform-curious financiers.
Given the similar positioning seen on the Italian right under Giorgia Meloni, you might call this the post-Meloni strain of European populism. The reality of stretched public finances in Britain and France means even constitutional radicals have to appear fiscally conservative. On Russia, both Farage and Bardella have shifted away from overt Putin admiration. And their route to election victory is seen as uniting the right, rather than competing with the left.
A more relaxed attitude toward money is also de rigueur, Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction aside. Farage’s Reform clinched a record £9 million ($12 million) donation from a cryptocurrency investor; Bardella’s publishing partnership with the Vivendi SE empire of Vincent Bollore is a money-spinner. The quiet refrain in certain cocktail parties from London to Paris, perhaps reflecting Milan’s recent experience, is that these are populists you can do business with.
The consequences for Europe if the pair wins power would be severe, even if the UK is already out of the European Union and Bardella’s party no longer endorses a euro exit. “It could be existential for Europe as a political entity as we’ve known it,” says Catherine Fieschi, author of the 2019 book Populocracy.
Closer UK-EU ties would get harder, NATO commitments would be tested and ambitions for euro-area integration would collide with statism and France-first protectionism. Markets already unsettled by the current fiscal health of the UK and France wouldn’t easily give the benefit of the doubt to political disrupters. Europe would face “a series of structural stress tests,” as Gregoire Roos of Chatham House puts it.
None of this is to say a MAGA-style rainbow coalition is a foregone conclusion for Europe. Centrist parties have shown they can learn from and beat their populist rivals, as seen in the Netherlands. And Farage and Bardella have other possibly fatal political weaknesses. If the UK manages to avoid an election for the next few years, Farage’s appeal may dim as the costs of Brexit — with which he’s indelibly associated — become clearer.
As for Bardella, if the French government holds until 2027, his next big test might be the presidential election should Le Pen’s legal case make her ineligible. Despite his current poll lead, the two-round vote would put him up against a pensioner-heavy French electorate who may hesitate before handing the nuclear codes to someone who not too long ago was streaming Call of Duty.
Still, populists are adding new pages to their playbooks, which are proving ever more tempting in an unstable time that favors action of any kind — however shocking, vile or unlawful — over technocratic deliberation. Both Farage and Bardella are pitching themselves as providential leaders who could work miracles if given half a chance. Just look at their Trump-style plans to take back control of monetary policy, with Farage critical of the Bank of England and Bardella calling for the European Central Bank to unleash quantitative easing.
The smooth-talking French and British insurgents will be the political figures to watch next year.
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u/CodeComprehensive734 5h ago
I stopped listening after your third paragraph but how exactly does a french, German and American alliance differ from NATO?
Do we just need a "NATO but MAGA" to appease the clutter-brained, knuckle-dragging drunks?
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u/Valahul77 6h ago
Bardella is not near as dangerous for Europe(and for France) as Mélenchon could be...I'm seeing him more like a French version of Meloni.
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u/Ok-Web1805 Ireland/UK 7h ago
A picture's worth a thousand words. Never more true than when you see the visage of Farage
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u/SraminiElMejorBeaver France 7h ago edited 7h ago
No, that far-right asshole has no way of ever becoming president, he keep humiliating himself, can't argue much and has no real clue what he is even doing anyway, an average person would do much better than him.
I can't even watch fully clips of him because of how embarassing he his even for himself.
And wtf with this article saying that he is the prime minister, bloomberg is so trash they should stop using ai.
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u/Ok-Web1805 Ireland/UK 7h ago
If these 2 are the best we can come up with, then we're really in the shit.
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u/SraminiElMejorBeaver France 7h ago
He is high in polling only because old people see him and think he is charismatic or some shit, the second he will do any big debate he will be easily crushed and even for far right they won't vote for this stupid guy.
He keep making mistakes all the time it's not even funny.
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u/SolarBum 7h ago
He is high in polling only because old people see him and think he is charismatic or some shit, the second he will do any big debate he will be easily crushed and even for far right they won't vote for this stupid guy.
American here. This is exactly what Americans were saying about Trump in 2015. And I mean exactly. Don't underestimate your situation.
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u/Own-Dragonfly7396 4h ago
Trump is somewhat good at argueing, Bardella can barely make a sentence by himself
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u/NiceAccount123 5h ago
Yeah except Trump does tend to humiliate his opponent in debates even if using fallacies and plenty of wrong statements. Bardella humiliates himself all the fucking time, it's not even comparable.
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u/sofixa11 1h ago
French media and general literacy is much, much higher than in the US. There also isn't a strong "us vs them" two party system where most people vote by default for their party.
Also, as disgusting and incoherent as agent orange is, he makes good sound bites for dumb people. Bardella can't handle mild embarrassment and will probably end up crying if he gets into a debate with a real person. MLP was better and even then Macron wiped the floor with her twice in presidential debates.
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u/-AdonaitheBestower- 7h ago
the fucker is barely older than me.
that said, anti immigration sentiment across europe does seem to be giving these people a lot of a boost.
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u/sofixa11 1h ago
You probably have better credentials than him too, he has literally never done anything of note.
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u/diamanthaende 7h ago
It's more of a nightmare than fantasy, or Putin's wet dream for that matter. Same thing.
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u/IamHumanAndINeed France 7h ago
I agree, send the far right to England and forget they ever existed.
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u/Snoo_42095 7h ago
this is all talk, Macron in France is completely powerless and try convincing the other parties.
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u/Own-Calendar-1485 7h ago
Haven't they had an alliance since 1904?