At just 28 years old, Jordan Bardella may soon be France's youngest prime minister.
With an online following of more than 2 million strong, political leader Marine Le Pen's "lion cub" protege has seen a meteoric rise to the top of the French National Rally party.
But "Bardella mania", according to experts, is only another concerning sign of growing support for the far right among younger voters across Europe.
Le Pen's 'lion cub' to draw in young voters
Mr Bardella joined France's leading far-right party at just 17 years old, signing up after Marine Le Pen became the Nationally Rally (RN) leader in the 2010s.
He quickly climbed the ranks.
Local media have since turned to his former classmates and teachers to get a better picture of their potential prime minister.
"My theory is that he looked around the political world and spotted the place where there was the best chance of climbing the ladder," one former teacher said.
A decade later, in 2022, Ms Le Pen would hand over the RN reigns to the man she dubbed the "lion cub".
Stanford University professor of French politics and far-right expert Cecile Alduy said Mr Bardella was "the creation of Marine Le Pen".
"He has been made by her and is extremely loyal," she said.
"They are completely in line politically."
Born in the north Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis in 1995 to parents of Italian origin, with Algerian roots, Mr Bardella was an attractive prospect for a party seeking to widen its appeal beyond its traditionally older, rural voter base.
[bardella insta]Close to a third of Seine-Saint-Denis residents are immigrants, according to Politico.
Prior to the election, the National Rally faced a "visceral" rejection from residents of the suburb, locals told the outlet.
He has cited his time growing up in the area as the reason he entered politics so young.
"I experienced to the very core the feeling of becoming a foreigner in my own country," he told The Telegraph in December.
His popularity is part of a "softening" of the party, according to Flinders University Professor in International History Matt Fitzpatrick.
National Rally began its campaign as National Front in 1972 led by Ms Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, known for his anti-semitic and anti-Islam views.
Ms Le Pen took over from her father in 2011.
"The only thing that's happening is a repackaging and a massaging and an attempt to mainstream the electoral message of the far-right," Professor Fitzpatrick said.
"[Bardella] also takes the face of the party away from the Le Pen family.
"In some ways, you can remove the connotations. You no longer see the father's face looming over the daughter, so to speak.
"Rather you have a fresh-faced young man who is very savvy in his use of TikTok, his capacity to speak to people in the terms of a younger demographic.
"[But] this is not about substantive change. This is about the change of the image and the rebranding of the party."
[bardella votes]Although Mr Bardella attended a semi-private Catholic school and his father was fairly well-off, party-sanctioned accounts have stressed his upbringing in a rundown housing project beset by poverty and drugs.
He never finished university. He poses for selfies with screaming fans.
His social media offers candid glimpses of his life, as well as traditional campaign material and videos mocking French President Emmanuel Macron.
All these factors have combined to give him an audience ready to hear whatever he has to say.
Far-right leaders 'selling a utopia'
Far-right and populist parties have achieved increased success across Europe in recent years, earning another surge in votes at the recent European elections.
In France, the National Rally received 33 per cent of the popular vote in the first round of parliamentary elections — a result which put France the closest it has been to having a far-right government since World War II.
Elections for the 577-seat National Assembly are held over two rounds.
If no candidate in a seat receives 50 per cent of the vote, it moves on to a second round.
This second round is slated to be held this weekend.
[election results]Simon Copland, a researcher and Honorary Fellow at the Australian National University's School of Sociology, studies the growth of far-right movements.
"The far right have been doing really fascinating and kind of terrifying stuff with social media that works, it really does work," he said.
"What they do very well is understand that politics is an emotional game as much as it is a rational game.
"If you can appeal to people's emotions, if you can tell a good story, if you can appeal to the desire for something that's transgressive or that can bring people in with you … they're very clever and understanding of those emotional elements.
"And Bardella is a good example of someone who's doing that quite well."
In recent months the National Rally has softened some of its most controversial positions.
It has pedalled back some of its proposals for more public spending and protectionist economic policies, and taking France out of NATO's strategic military command.
Mr Bardella has been at the forefront — donning a suit and tie on the campaign trail.
He said as prime minister he would promote law and order, tighter regulation of migration and restricting certain social benefits, including housing, to French citizens only.
Dual citizens would be barred from specific key jobs, such as state employees in the defence and security field.
He promised to cut taxes on fuel, gas and electricity, and pledged to roll back changes to the nation's pension laws which sparked extreme protest last year.
Aston University's Dr Joseph Downing, an expert in French politics, told France 24 Mr Bardella presented himself as "the real thing".
"He is attractive to young voters because he himself is young," he said.
"People see him as this kind of renegade that could step outside of a very rigid [political system].
"He has the advantage of not being tainted by the messy business of actually governing. People are tired of politicians who clearly have a lot financially and materially telling them that they need to suffer.
"He is selling people a utopia, he is not selling them a reality.
"And that is the problem with contemporary politics. It is not about substance. It is about whether or not the person is good-looking, [or if] they have charisma or a rebellious attitude you can relate to."
Europe's 'foreigners out' generation
Mr Bardella is also far from the only far-right politician or party to harness social media to cater to a younger demographic.
Online newspaper Politico has dubbed the far-right swing "Europe's 'foreigners out' generation".
In France, the National Rally raked in about 30 per cent of the youth vote nationwide at the EU election.
In Germany, the number of young people voting for populist party Alternative for Germany jumped by 11 per cent among voters aged 24-30 years old.
According to Dr Copland, the shift is "not surprising".
"We're entering a period in which for the first time in many, many decades, the younger generation feel like their future is going to be worse than the generation before them," he said.
"They have every right to feel that … there's a whole range of social and economic problems that have been inflicted upon the younger generations, and people are seeking alternatives.
"Sadly the far right is one of those.
"It's not surprising that a generation that feels nihilistic about the world, that feels that there is no future, is turning to these extreme edges as a solution.
"We've also seen a lot of young far-right leaders who, through being kind of anti-establishment, they buy into this idea that they're being the transgressive radical ones, that the far right is the new cool.
"These [far right groups] are all trying to play into a sense of edginess … it speaks to a younger audience very cleverly, and I actually think it's something the left has failed in doing."
It was important to note however, according to Professor Fitzpatrick, that the extent of far-right sentiment could be "overplayed".
"I want to stress as well that young French people were just as likely to vote left of centre as right of centre," he said.
"In many ways, the demographic where the far right does the best is quite often with young men between about 25 and 35, who feel disenfranchised in the sense that they thought that the world was at their feet.
"Or that they've had every opportunity in the world and they're finding out their life is not turning out the way they had hoped.
"Some of that disappointment feeds into political resentment, and the question of looking then for reasons and a scapegoat."
Far-right parties' proficiency in online spaces, including TikTok, YouTube and Telegram, has been a major factor in their increasing success.
During the EU elections, Spanish social media influencer Alvise Perez, who conducted an anti-immigration campaign almost exclusively on Instagram and Telegram, garnered 6.7 per cent of the youth vote.
[map]Far-right party Vox, who have a strong TikTok presence, won 12.4 per cent of votes from those under 25, compared with only 9.6 per cent of the overall vote.
A survey of Germany's youth earlier this year showed young people were increasingly worried about inflation, expensive housing and social divisions.
The survey's lead author, Simon Schnetzer, said younger voters had been left "disappointed by the parties in power".
"Young people are first-time voters. They are a blank sheet. What drives their decisions most is: Who can offer me something that best fits my needs?" he told CNN.
"Young people will double check, does that help me with any of my needs? Does it entertain me? Does it give me security? Is it fun? And if it's none of that, it's boring.
"If you have this TikTok logic, you'll quickly swipe further.
"If you are not on young people's [social media] channels, you simply do not exist."
ABC/AP/Reuters
