Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN), has been accused by an investigative website of writing antisemitic comments in 2013 — allegations the close ally of presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen has rejected as fabricated.
Mediapart reported that Mr Bardella wrote in a private chat: “The Jew has to dominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them; a Zionist is necessarily a Jew, and fundamentally so.”
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Mr Bardella, 31, who is widely tipped to become prime minister if Ms Le Pen wins the presidency, said on X that he “formally” denied the allegations. He branded the messages “crude forgeries” and said he would take legal action against Mediapart.
The investigation centres on private conversations allegedly written by Mr Bardella during the summer of 2013, when he was 17 or 18.
The activist, who had joined the far-right party then called the National Front (FN) about a year and a half earlier, allegedly wrote: “And that is what they want: a New World Order dominated by Israel, with Jerusalem as the capital, of course.”
He was also accused of writing: “all the banks are owned by Jews”.
Ms Le Pen told reporters she believed the alleged messages were “fake”, accusing Mediapart — which has repeatedly clashed with the RN — of resorting to “dirty tricks”.
Far-right ‘breakthrough’
Mr Bardella, an adept social-media user who has cultivated a polished public image, has become central to Ms Le Pen’s effort to pursue “de-demonisation” and present the RN as a party capable of winning power.
Both politicians have sought to distance the movement from the legacy of Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded and led the FN and made repeated antisemitic remarks.
In 2025, Mr Bardella made an unprecedented visit to Israel — the first such trip by a French far-right leader — as he sought to underline the RN’s transformed credentials.
The allegations surfaced as Ms Le Pen’s prospects for the 2027 election appeared stronger than during any of her previous campaigns.
A fresh poll put Ms Le Pen ahead in the first round of voting to replace French President Emmanuel Macron and indicated that she could comfortably defeat potential opponents in the second-round run-off.
She also described the RN’s performance in elections for the upper-house Senate as “historic”. The chamber, whose members are chosen by local officials, gave the party enough seats to form a faction there for the first time.
Le Monde called the result a “breakthrough” for the movement and a “warning” to rival parties.
Mr Bardella accused what he described as an “activist media” of pursuing a smear campaign intended “to destabilise the presidential campaign and attack my honour”.
The Toluna-Harris survey for RTL and M6 found that Ms Le Pen would take about 35-36% of the vote in the first round, scheduled for 18 April, if the election were held now.
In the second round on 2 May, the poll suggested she would defeat either hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) leader Jean-Luc Melenchon or centrist frontrunner Edouard Philippe.
