Jordan Bardella denies Mediapart report alleging 2013 antisemitic messages

Investigation findings

French investigative outlet Mediapart published a report on 28 September 2026 detailing private messages and witness accounts from 2013 to 2015 attributed to Jordan Bardella, the 31-year-old president of the National Rally (RN). According to the publication, the correspondence dates back to the summer of 2013, when Bardella was a 17-year-old activist in the National Front, the predecessor to the RN. The investigation, which spanned several months, claimed that Bardella sent messages alleging that Jewish people seek to dominate other populations and asserted that all banks are owned by Jews. The report further alleged that Bardella referred to figures such as former economy minister Pierre Moscovici, intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, and essayist Jacques Attali in conspiratorial terms regarding global governance and financial control.

The outlet also cited testimony from former colleagues in the National Front Youth (FNJ) in Seine-Saint-Denis, who stated that Bardella regularly consumed material by convicted antisemitic ideologue Alain Soral and expressed interest in conspiracy theories regarding the post-war survival of Adolf Hitler. The report stated that the private conversations were independently authenticated before publication.

Leadership denial and legal response

Bardella categorically rejected the reporting on Monday, describing the attributed statements as forgeries manufactured to inflict political damage ahead of the upcoming presidential election. He stated that he was not an active campaigner during the summer of 2013 and noted his status as a minor at that time.

I formally dispute the accusations against me by Mediapart, which attributes to me deranged and antisemitic remarks that I supposedly made when I was a minor. These are obviously crude forgeries.

Bardella announced that he instructed his legal counsel to file defamation proceedings against Mediapart. Marine Le Pen, who was cleared by an appeals court in July 2026 to run for the presidency next year with Bardella designated as her prime minister, also dismissed the reporting. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Le Pen termed the allegations a fabricated political dirty trick and confirmed her expectation of immediate legal filings.

Political context and community reaction

The allegations arrive while the National Rally continues its decade-long initiative to soften its public image, an effort intended to move away from the xenophobic and antisemitic legacy of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Under Bardella and Le Pen, the party has positioned itself as a protector of French Jews, including through an official visit by Bardella to Jerusalem in 2024 at the invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Representative Jewish organizations in France reacted critically to the Mediapart findings. Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), stated to Agence France-Presse that the revelations demonstrated the shortcomings of the party's normalization strategy.

I am, like everyone, stunned by the violence of the antisemitic remarks attributed to Jordan Bardella, which even youth obviously cannot explain.

Arfi stated that the underlying ideology of the party had not fundamentally changed, describing it as a continued home for conspiracists. The controversy follows previous electoral setbacks for the party, including the 2024 legislative elections where controversial statements by several candidates undermined the RN's push for an absolute parliamentary majority.