Jordan Bardella Isn’t Such a Friend of Jews After All
New revelations allege French far-right leader Jordan Bardella was once an obsessive antisemite who wrote that Jews dominate and rob other peoples. While his National Rally party has airbrushed its image, the conspiratorial worldview remains at its core.
French far-right leader Jordan Bardella has long branded the Left antisemitic and claimed that support for Israel shows how his party has changed. A story exposing his alleged past Jew hate suggests that the far right’s philosemitism is rather hollow. (Carine Schmitt / Hans Lucas via AFP)
As a young member of the Front National (today’s Rassemblement National), Jordan Bardella was an “obsessive antisemite,” according to a story published by investigative site Mediapart this Monday. “Banks are all controlled by Jews,” Bardella allegedly wrote in one message published by Mediapart. “The Jew must dominate other peoples, crush them and rob them,” read another. “A Zionist is necessarily Jewish, and deeply so.”
Bardella, who was the Rassemblement National’s candidate for prime minister in 2024 and who has been president of the party since 2022, denies having written the messages, which Mediapart says date from between 2013 and 2015.
“These comments are completely outrageous. They’re not mine. . . . I dispute them,” Bardella said in a television interview on Monday night, adding that his lawyers had filed a defamation lawsuit against Mediapart. “I think we’re looking at something very organized . . . which resembles a covert operation.”
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