Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, her National Rally party and its allies on Tuesday rallied behind Jordan Bardella after media allegations that he made antisemitic remarks as a young party member. Bardella, 31, who Le Pen has said will be her prime minister if she wins next year’s presidential election, strongly denied that he wrote the comments published by investigative website Mediapart.
advertisement
At a previously scheduled gathering of their lawmakers, Le Pen, Bardella and ally Eric Ciotti projected unity and said the allegations were part of an attempt to weaken the National Rally and Le Pen’s campaign to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, who cannot seek a third consecutive term under France’s Constitution.
Mediapart on Monday published remarks it attributed to Bardella from more than a decade ago, including from years when he was a teenage member of the National Front, the predecessor to the National Rally. The comments referred to supposed Jewish banking monopolies and other antisemitic conspiracy theories. Mediapart said the remarks came from private written exchanges, though it did not specify whether they were emails or another format. It said it had independently authenticated the exchanges but did not explain how or say how it obtained them.
The allegations are especially sensitive for the National Rally because Le Pen has spent years trying to distance herself from the legacy of her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front. He repeatedly denied the Holocaust and was convicted multiple times of hate speech before his death in 2025. His links with people who collaborated with France’s Nazi occupiers in World War II, along with convictions for antisemitism, discrimination and inciting racial violence, made him unacceptable to many voters and blocked his own presidential ambitions.
Sitting side by side, Le Pen, Bardella and Ciotti used Tuesday’s meeting to show a united front. Bardella said it was “the beginnings of an all-out war, of attempts to destabilise the presidential campaign, which – I’m telling you – will target us one after another”. Le Pen said, “We have both put on our Kevlar suits, because this is heavy stuff coming down on us.” She added, “This manipulation is about as subtle as a charcuterie convention.” “We are not going to let them do this to us!” she said, before expressing “absolute confidence” in Bardella to applause from lawmakers.
Bardella, who now heads the National Rally and is especially popular with young voters, said he had launched a libel action over Mediapart’s report and called it “a dirty-tricks operation”. “These remarks are completely delusional. They are not mine,” he told broadcaster CNews. He also said the allegations were part of a plot designed to stop him if he had needed to replace Le Pen as the party’s candidate.
Le Pen is widely seen at this early stage as a front-runner in the two-round presidential election in April and May. Her campaign has largely avoided major setbacks since an appeals court in July shortened a ban on seeking public office that had been imposed on her after a conviction for embezzling public funds, allowing her to make a fourth run for the presidency. Bardella, her protege, had been waiting in the wings if the original five-year ban had stayed in place.
Tuesday’s show of unity underlined how seriously the National Rally views the allegations, with Le Pen backing Bardella fully as both sought to cast the claims as an attempt to damage their presidential chances.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
