Jordan Bardella faces antisemitism accusations over past messages

Jordan Bardella, president of France’s National Rally (RN), has been accused of voicing antisemitic views in private conversations with party members when he was 17 years old.

In a report published on Monday, investigative news website Mediapart stated that it had obtained and independently verified correspondence in which Bardella allegedly said that “Jews must dominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them,” and that “all banks are in the hands of Jews.”

Bardella strongly denied the allegations, adding that he will sue Mediapart.

Both Bardella and Marine Le Pen characterised the report as part of a wider, coordinated effort to prevent the veteran far-right politician, who currently leads in the polls, from winning next year’s election.

Bardella said:

“At a time when we have never been closer to the victory of our ideas, certain activist media outlets are ready to organise smear campaigns to destabilise the presidential campaign and attack my honour.”

The RN president said, “We can feel the first signs of an all-out war and attempts to destabilise the presidential campaign.”

Le Pen, seated beside Bardella as she spoke to reporters in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, said, “The system will do everything, even the most disgusting things, to block this momentum.”

During her attendance at a construction industry event on Monday, Le Pen described Mediapart’s report as “madness”.

The National Rally’s predecessor, the National Front, was founded by Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, who was convicted repeatedly of hate speech, along with Nazi collaborators.

Le Pen expelled her father from the party in 2015 after he repeated his claim that the Holocaust was a “detail” of history.

Given that Le Pen propelled Bardella’s career and placed him at the forefront of efforts to clean up the party’s image, the fallout from this latest scandal could be particularly damaging.

Too young to be associated with the party’s old guard, Bardella was seen as a fresh face who could help the party make inroads among sections of the electorate where the Le Pen name carried too many negative connotations, particularly among older voters and the Jewish community.

Since taking the helm of the National Rally in 2021, Bardella has promoted the party as a defender of France’s Jewish population, pointing to his unreserved support for Israel as evidence.

The 31-year-old Bardella travelled to Israel in 2025 after receiving an invitation from Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli.