\u201cOur ambition is to think big and to build a new European architecture capable of addressing the major challenges of the 21st century \u2014 and we will certainly need the largest group possible,\u201d he told POLITICO in the interview.<\/p>\n
Bardella will find out if he is his party\u2019s presidential candidate on July 7, when a French appeals court decides whether to uphold his mentor Marine Le Pen\u2019s convictions for embezzlement and the five-year election ban that comes with it. Polls have him winning the election\u2019s first round, and early polls also show him beating other contenders in the runoff, though only narrowly against centrist candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Common challenges\u2019<\/p>\n
For years, PiS held the National Rally in contempt for its closeness to Russia \u2014 a serious liability in a country still scarred by Soviet domination and deeply mistrustful of anybody cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have as much in common with Ms. Le Pen as with Mr. Putin,\u201d the party\u2019s leader Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski quipped in 2017.<\/p>\n
Relations warmed up under former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who hosted Le Pen for dinner in Warsaw in 2021, and Bardella himself has made a point of distancing himself from pro-Kremlin figures in his party. He is expected to meet with Kaczy\u0144ski and other party figures on Friday.<\/p>\n