Bardella Threatens Libel Suit as Antisemitism Claims Shake French Far-Right Campaign

The leader of France's hard-right National Rally (RN) has announced he will take legal action for libel following a media investigation that alleged he made a series of antisemitic remarks as a young political activist more than a decade ago. Jordan Bardella, who serves as party president, rejected the claims as a politically motivated fabrication designed to damage his movement seven months before France's presidential election.

The allegations were published by Mediapart, an investigative website known for its left-leaning editorial stance. The outlet said its report was the product of "several months" of research and drew on "dozens of written conversations" that Bardella is said to have taken part in during 2013, when he was around 17 or 18 years old.

Mediapart did not publish screenshots of any of the alleged exchanges. The site said it had "independently authenticated" the conversations, which it described as coming from "a bigger documentary base corroborated by witness statements." The absence of visible supporting material has become a central point of contention in the escalating dispute.

Among the remarks attributed to Bardella are claims that "all the banks are owned by Jews," that "the Jew has to dominate other people, crush them and rob them," and that the goal of a "new world order dominated by Israel, with of course Jerusalem as its capital" was being pursued. These statements, if genuine, would place the young Bardella in direct opposition to the image the RN has carefully cultivated in recent years.

Bardella, now 31, responded forcefully to the report. Speaking on CNews television on Monday night, he said the situation was part of "the beginnings of a total war" aimed at destabilising his party. He suggested that either Mediapart was conducting the operation itself or was being manipulated by vested interests. "Of course I have instructed my lawyer to sue for libel," he said, framing the publication as an attempt to destroy his political career.

Marine Le Pen, the RN's presidential candidate and the party's long-time figurehead, stood by Bardella. She said the alleged statements "seem so weird that they can only be a forgery — one of those dirty tricks for which Mediapart appears to hold the secret." Her endorsement reinforces the stakes of the dispute, as Bardella would probably become prime minister if she wins the presidency next year.

The timing could hardly be more sensitive for the RN. The party is riding higher in the polls than at any previous point, with the latest survey this week from Toluna-Harris showing Le Pen a clear victor over any rival in the decisive second round in May. According to the poll, she would win 35 to 36 percent of the vote in the multi-candidate first round and then defeat her likely run-off opponent, radical-left figure Jean-Luc Mélenchon, by a sweeping 69 percent margin.

The same survey carried a stark warning for the political mainstream, indicating that Le Pen would also comfortably beat Edouard Philippe, the most popular centrist candidate, with 57 percent of the vote. On Sunday the RN received a further boost when a partial election for the Senate, the upper house of parliament, produced enough seats for the party to form an official group for the first time.

Under Le Pen, who took over from her father and party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, the RN has worked hard to distance itself from the antisemitic roots of the French far right. Last year Bardella became the first senior figure from the party to be invited to Israel, where he attended a conference on antisemitism. The party now presents militant Islam as a pre-eminent threat, a position it shares with many Jewish voters, and has styled itself as a "shield for the Jewish community."

The Mediapart report strikes at the heart of that rebranding effort. The website argues that the current of far-right thinking reflected in the alleged comments was never truly eradicated, only covered up in the party's new incarnation. Critics of the RN seized on the allegations to reinforce that narrative.

Left-wing politicians called on Bardella to resign. Yonathan Arfi, head of Crif, the umbrella organisation representing French Jewish communities, said the alleged remarks "were an illustration of the limits of the RN's clean-up act." That intervention carries particular weight because the RN has invested heavily in courting Jewish voters and presenting itself as a reliable ally against antisemitism.

The party's defenders pushed back sharply. RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy said the source of the allegations was disaffected former members who had been expelled years earlier because of their antisemitic ideas. "From what I know, it is the antisemitic rabble that were so bravely purged by Marine Le Pen," he said. According to Tanguy, such figures were numerous and well-organised at the start of the 2010s, but they were defeated and have long harboured resentment towards the party.

The controversy also highlights Mediapart's role in French public life. The website has a history of exposing scandals across the political spectrum, although its targets have included politicians of many different stripes, and it is avowedly left-wing in its outlook. Its decision to publish without screenshots has given Bardella's camp an opening to question the strength of the evidence, even as the outlet insists its authentication process was rigorous.

For now, the dispute appears destined for the courts, where the burden of proof will shift from the arena of political spin to the standards of French libel law. The outcome could shape not only Bardella's personal reputation but also the RN's broader effort to convince voters that it has decisively broken with the antisemitism of its past. With the presidential election approaching, both sides have clear incentives to press their case as aggressively as possible.