A new leader will be elected at a party congress on November 5 in Paris. It will be the first time the party has been led by anyone outside the Le Pen family since her father Jean-Marie co-founded the Front National (its previous name) in 1972.
Mr Bardella, 26, a MEP who has cared for Ms Le Pen for years and led the party during her presidential campaign, is an all-time favorite to win.
“My political line is that of Marine Le Pen,” he said this week. “I think the work we’ve done…when she entrusted me with the interim party presidency last September, is a path that will enable us to build on this victorious ambition that we must pursue,” he told BFMTV.
However, in a stand on the online news website L’Opinion, Mr Aliot, 52, announced on Thursday his intention to compete for the post which will be decided in a vote by 30,000 card-carrying party members.
‘Elected official rooted in peripheral France’
As the only RN mayor in charge of a city of more than 100,000 people, Mr Aliot said he had the advantage of being “an elected official rooted in peripheral France” — provincial France outside normal Parisian circles of power.
He argued that he was instrumental in overseeing with Ms. Le Pen the demonization of the party which is “certainly bearing fruit today”.
In L’Opinion, Aliot called for a “healthy” race “to prepare for Marine’s succession and rule France when the French call us to power”.