Jordan Bardella, the 31‑year‑old president of France’s far‑right National Rally (RN), has said he will sue the investigative website Mediapart after the outlet released a trove of documents it claims show the young activist made antisemitic remarks in 2013.
The criticism emerged during a period of growing pressure on the RN before France’s next presidential election. Bardella warned that Mediapart was launching a “total war” to destabilise his party and his campaign for the presidency.
According to Mediapart, the documents are the result of a six‑month investigation that uncovered dozens of exchanged conversations from when Bardella was 17 and 18. The alleged remarks included statements such as “All the banks are owned by Jews” and “the Jew has to dominate other people, crush them and rob them.” While Mediapart said the exchanges were authenticated by a larger documentary base and witness statements, it did not publish any screenshots of the claims.
Bardella declined to comment on the authenticity of the recordings, calling the allegations a fabrication intended to impede his political rise. He told a French television channel that he had instructed his legal team to file a libel suit. Marine Le Pen, the RN’s presidential candidate and daughter of the party’s founder, said the remarks were “so bizarre they can only be a forgery” and praised her party’s efforts to distance itself from its far‑right past.
The RN’s fortunes have recently surged. A recent poll put Le Pen ahead with 35‑36% in the first round, poised to face either centre‑left candidate Édouard Philippe or radical leftist Jean‑Luc Mélenchon in a run‑off, where Le Pen is expected to win with 69% of the vote if she gains the full 57% she poll‑says she can outpoll the centre‑right.
The party’s attempt to shed its antisemitic history has included invitations to senior RN figures to Israel for conferences on antisemitism. In contrast, the RN portrays militant Islam as an existential threat and brands itself as a “shield for the Jewish community.” Critics, however, argue that the allegations show that past far‑right influences have not fully vanished from the party’s ranks.
