Bardella rejects alleged antisemitic messages and sues over report
French far-right leader Jordan Bardella has denied allegations that he wrote antisemitic and conspiratorial comments in private chats as a teenager. The claims, published by Mediapart, have drawn condemnation from a Jewish representative and a government minister, while Bardella and Marine Le Pen call them fabricated and politically motivated.
Jordan Bardella, leader of France’s National Rally, has rejected allegations that he wrote antisemitic comments in private online chats as a teenager and said his lawyer had filed a defamation lawsuit. The allegations were published on Monday by investigative website Mediapart, which said Bardella wrote the comments in 2013, when he was 17 or 18. The report attributed several antisemitic and conspiratorial statements to him, including claims about Jews, Israel and banks.
Bardella described the allegations on X as “crude forgeries”. He later told CNews that he believed the report was intended to destabilise the National Rally’s campaign and damage him politically. Mediapart said its investigation was based on private chats that it had authenticated.
It did not specify where the messages had been written and did not publish screenshots, according to the source material. Marine Le Pen, the party’s leading presidential figure, also said she believed the purported comments were fake. She accused Mediapart, which has previously clashed with the National Rally, of engaging in political “dirty tricks”.
The allegations nevertheless prompted criticism from Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions. Arfi said the reported remarks were too serious to be explained by Bardella’s age if they were genuine, and criticised the party as a haven for identitarian and conspiracy-based politics. Anti-discrimination minister Aurore Berge said the comments would be “extremely serious” if authenticated.
She said their alleged antisemitic and conspiratorial character reflected the historical nature of the far right. Bardella has been central to Le Pen’s effort to make the National Rally more electorally acceptable and distance it from the antisemitic legacy associated with its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The dispute comes as polling cited by the source material shows Marine Le Pen leading potential first-round contenders for the 2027 presidential election.
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