Marine Le Pen has ended three days of silence to publicly reaffirm her support for Jordan Bardella, the man widely expected to become her prime minister if she wins the 2027 French presidential election. The endorsement comes after investigative outlet Mediapart published a second round of alleged evidence pointing to antisemitic and conspiracist messages attributed to the National Rally (RN) leader.
In an interview with La Tribune Dimanche, Le Pen said she has "total confidence" in Bardella, dismissing the allegations as an attempt to derail her campaign. Her comments follow a terse response on Monday when she told reporters at a trade fair: "You won't get anyone to believe that," before cutting the exchange short.
What the new evidence alleges
Mediapart, which says it has preserved the original spelling and grammar of the messages, reports that Bardella, then aged 17 or 18, wrote in one conversation about "the Jew" wanting to "dominate" other peoples, to "crush" and "rob" them, adding that "a Zionist is necessarily Jewish, deep down". He is also said to have accused several ministers from François Hollande's presidency of prioritising Israeli and banking interests over French ones.
The outlet also highlights the alleged influence of Alain Soral, a far-right ideologue repeatedly convicted for inciting racial hatred, antisemitic insults, homophobia and Holocaust denial. Mediapart presents its latest article as a response to what it calls a "violent challenge" to its earlier reporting, accusing Bardella of having "lied to the whole of France" by refusing to acknowledge authorship of his own texts.
Bardella has dismissed the messages as "crude fakes" and announced two legal complaints, one for defamation and one for forgery and use of forgeries. He has framed the controversy as "the beginnings of a total war" aimed at sabotaging the RN's presidential bid.
Internal doubts despite public support
Despite Le Pen's public backing, Le Parisien reports that she is "not necessarily convinced of her protégé's good faith". A member of the RN campaign team told the newspaper: "In her view, it is quite likely that the exchanges are real. They are the words of a 17-year-old kid intoxicated by Soral, who is no longer the same person today."
That assessment stands in stark contrast to Le Pen's brief comment in La Tribune Dimanche. The weekly also cites a campaign source saying the controversy does not dent the 30% to 35% of voting intentions in Le Pen's favour. "If our electorate paid attention to what the press says about us, we'd be on 2%," the source added.
The allegations come as Le Pen is credited with 31% to 36% of first-round voting intentions in the presidential election, ahead of former prime minister Édouard Philippe and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the France Unbowed candidate, who are vying for second place.
Le Pen and Bardella are due to appear together on Tuesday at a joint press conference to present an alternative budget, just as the government unveiled its own budget plans on Thursday. Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) wonders, quoting an RN MP, whether the controversy could lead the party to refrain from censuring the government if it pushes its bill through using article 49.3, which allows a text to be adopted without a vote unless a motion of censure secures a majority. Resorting to this constitutional tool is deemed likely by an expert interviewed by Euronews.
The affair has broader implications for the French political landscape, with the RN seeking to project an image of mainstream respectability ahead of the 2027 vote. The party's ability to weather such controversies will be closely watched across Europe, as far-right movements gain ground in several member states. For more on the evolving situation, see our earlier coverage of the initial Mediapart report and Bardella's response to Macron.
