France’s Far-right National Rally Elects New President to Replace Le Pen

THE GUARDIAN: ordan Bardella, 27, who joined the party as a teenager and is a protege of Marine Le Pen, replaces her as leader

Jordan Bardella, newly-elected president of the RN party, holds the hand of Marine Le Pen after the results during the National Rally party's Congress in Paris, France. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
France’s far-right National Rally (RN) has elected a 27-year-old from the Paris banlieue who joined the party as a teenager as its new president to replace Marine Le Pen.

The result means that for the first time since the party – originally the National Front – was created in 1972, it will not be run by a Le Pen.

Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s protege, who has been caretaker president for a year, beat Louis Aliot, 53, the mayor of Perpignan, a party heavyweight as well as Le Pen’s former partner, by 85% to 15% of party members who voted.

There were cheers and a standing ovation as Le Pen announced the result. The handover comes at a tense time for the RN after one of its MPs was suspended from parliament for a racist outburst last week. » | Kim Willsher in Paris | Saturday, November 5, 2022

Marine Le Pen passe la main à Jordan Bardella pour diriger le Rassemblement national : L’eurodéputé, qui assure l’intérim de la présidence du RN depuis un an, a obtenu 84,84 % des suffrages lors du vote qui s’est déroulé dans la matinée. »

Politischer Ziehsohn von Le Pen wird neuer Parteichef : Er ist jung, stramm rechtsnational und binnen kürzester Zeit aufgestiegen: Jordan Bardella übernimmt den Vorsitz des Rassemblement National. Die größte Herausforderung erwartet ihn in der Provinz. »

So the Politicians Have Let It Come to This: The Royal Navy Can No Longer Fight a Major War!
"We have come all the way from Lord Nelson to a part-time defence secretary, with the consequence that the Royal Navy now finds itself in the most degenerated state in which it has ever been. Labour has done what none of this countries' enemies have been able to do: bring the Navy to its knees." - Liam Fox, the shadow Tory defence secretary

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under­funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed.

With an "under-resourced" fleet composed of "ageing and operationally defective ships", the Navy would struggle even to repeat its role in the Iraq war and is now "far more vulnerable to unexpected shocks", the top-level Ministry of Defence document says.

The report was ordered by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, who had intended to use it to "counter criticism" on the state of the Navy in the media and from opposition parties.

But in a damning conclusion, the report states: "The current material state of the fleet is not good; the Royal Navy would be challenged to mount a medium-scale operation in accordance with current policy against a technologically capable adversary." A medium-scale operation is similar to the naval involvement in the Iraq War.

The document adds that the Navy is too "thinly stretched", its fighting capability is being "eroded" and the fleet's ability to influence events at the strategic level is "under threat". Navy would struggle to fight a war – report >>>

Mark Alexander