Le Pen's Ally Jordan Bardella Faces Antisemitism Allegations

Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party and its allies have publicly backed presidential candidate Jordan Bardella following media reports alleging antisemitic statements he made as a teenager. Bardella, 31, a rising star in French far-right politics and Le Pen's chosen prime minister if she wins next year's presidential election, is accused of writing in private messages in 2013, at age 17, that "banks are all owned by Jews," that "the Jew must rule over other peoples, crush them and plunder them," and that "Zionist is necessarily Jewish, and deeply and profoundly."

The investigative website Mediapart published the report, stating the messages were from private correspondence and that they had independently verified them. The allegations come at a sensitive time for Le Pen, who has worked to distance her party from its antisemitic past, inherited from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. The National Rally has rebranded itself as a bulwark against Islamic extremism and has courted Jewish voters, with Bardella himself having visited Israel last year for an anti-antisemitism conference organized by Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli.

Bardella has vehemently denied the accusations, calling them "completely absurd" and "not mine," and has initiated defamation proceedings against Mediapart. He described the report as part of a "total war" and "dirty tricks" campaign aimed at undermining his and Le Pen's presidential bid. Le Pen expressed "absolute confidence" in Bardella, stating that their opponents would resort to "the dirtiest tricks imaginable" to halt their momentum.

Leaders of the National Rally presented a united front in support of Bardella, emphasizing their belief that the report is a politically motivated attack. However, Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), stated that if the allegations are true, they would be a "glaring contradiction" of the party's efforts to cleanse its image. Left-wing politicians, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also condemned the alleged remarks, though Mélenchon himself has faced accusations of antisemitism.