As French lawmakers voted to topple the government on Wednesday, several thousand people lined up outside a cafe in northern Paris for a chance to share a brief word, or perhaps even a selfie, with the rising star of the French far right.
Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old wingman of nationalist leader Marine Le Pen, is a lawmaker in the European Parliament. So he was not at the National Assembly voting to oust Prime Minister Michel Barnier alongside his fellow National Rally (RN) party members on Wednesday.
Instead, he was less than five kilometres (3 miles) away, swarmed by adoring fans, signing copies of his hit debut book, "What I'm Looking For."
"It's the book they don't want you to read," Bardella declared during a whirlwind promotional tour that has coincided with France's second major political crisis in six months.
Le Pen was the driving force in toppling Barnier's government over a 2025 budget bill the RN and the left deemed too tough on the working classes. That has left Bardella free to bask in adoration as he promotes his book across France.
"I bought his book on the first day and I read it straight away," said Pierre Le Camus, a 25-year-old former parliamentary assistant to an RN lawmaker, outside the book-signing venue. "I come to encourage him in everything he does."
BAD REVIEWS
The reviews have not been kind - "a marketing object ... devoid of any introspection or revelation," Le Monde declared - but sales have been robust, with nearly 60,000 copies sold since its launch on Nov. 9, according to Europe 1.
None of the young crowd queuing round the block in the freezing cold to meet their hero on Wednesday night were concerned about sniffy reviews in Parisien broadsheets.
They were more worried about rising gang violence and immigration, issues Bardella has made a key part of his political pitch.
"We need things to change and I think Bardella is the man to do it," said 18-year-old Eric Berthelot, who hails from a rough suburb outside Paris.
He said he grew up surrounded by drugs, weapons and stolen cars in a neighbourhood with a large African immigrant population. Cops were rarely present, Berthelot said, and the cameras they installed were immediately burned down. A few years ago, his friend was stabbed to death, an innocent bystander caught up in gang violence, he said.
"France welcomes all the misery of the world," he said. "But those who arrive don't respect our culture and want to destroy our country. That's not acceptable and must be punished."
'I KNOW THE GHETTO'
Louis de Lassagne, a 19-year-old student from a small wealthy town outside Paris, said he, too, was concerned by rising crime. He said he knew Philippine, a 19-year-old middle class girl murdered in September, allegedly by a Moroccan man due to be deported. The RN jumped on her high-profile killing as vindication of its calls for tougher immigration and crime laws.
Bardella has long cited his upbringing in the poor and multi-ethnic Seine-Saint-Denis department north of Paris as the crucible in which his political views were forged.
Ismael Habri, a 27-year-old janitor with a TRUMP badge on his lapel, said he grew up in a similar environment.
"I know the ghetto well so I understand Bardella," he said. "France needs hope. France needs to regain its sovereignty."
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