French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party rallied behind her running mate, Jordan Bardella, following media accusations that he made antisemitic remarks in his youth. Bardella, 31, whom Le Pen has said will be her prime minister if she wins the presidency in May, strongly denied the claims, which the investigative website Mediapart published.
These allegations pertained to comments about alleged Jewish banking monopolies made over a decade ago when Bardella was a teenager in the party’s predecessor, the National Front, founded by Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, known for Holocaust denial.
The National Rally is sensitive to antisemitism allegations due to Le Pen’s efforts to distance herself from her father’s controversial past, which included multiple hate speech convictions.
On Tuesday, during a gathering of their lawmakers, Le Pen, Bardella, and their ally Eric Ciotti publicly supported Bardella, labelling Mediapart’s claims as an attack on their campaign against President Emmanuel Macron, who cannot seek a third term. Bardella described the situation as “an all-out war” against them, while Le Pen expressed her confidence in him, calling the media manipulation “about as subtle as a charcuterie convention.”
Bardella announced he would pursue a libel case against Mediapart, rejecting the allegations as unfounded. Le Pen is currently viewed as a front-runner in the upcoming presidential election, having recently cleared a legal hurdle that had previously blocked her candidacy.
This article used information from The Associated Press.
