Mediapart Authenticates Antisemitic Messages by Jordan Bardella Amid Marine Le Pen’s Support

Marine Le Pen has maintained her total trust in National Rally president Jordan Bardella, despite an online investigative report by Mediapart that authenticated alleged antisemitic messages sent by Bardella on Messenger in 2013.

The Authenticated Messages and the Direct Denial from Jordan Bardella

The controversy centers around social media messages first uncovered on Monday, September 28, 2026, and attributed by Mediapart to Jordan Bardella during his time as a young party militant in 2013. The investigative outlet reported that the user account in question contained statements such as “the banks are all owned by Jews” and “the Jew must dominate other peoples, crush them and rob them, a Zionist is necessarily Jewish, and in depth,” as documented by the sources. Additional passages published by the sources show the account claiming that “what they want, a New World Order dominated by Israel, with of course Jerusalem as capital” and asserting that key government ministries went to people prioritizing Israel and banking interests over French concerns.

Following an initial denial, Mediapart published a second wave of findings on Thursday evening, October 1, 2026, reporting that Meta—the parent company of Facebook—had extracted the Messenger conversation under a court bailiff’s control, as detailed by the sources. The outlet stated that biographical details within the chats—such as Bardella’s mother being born in Italy, a mention of an interview he gave to Le Parisien in 2013, and his failure of the Sciences Po entrance exam—confirmed the profile belonged to the real Jordan Bardella.

Jordan Bardella has formally contested ownership of the accounts. He dismissed the revelations as “gross montages, obscure manipulable screenshots, taking up ignoble remarks that I have obviously never made,” according to the sources. He announced that he had instructed his lawyer to file a complaint for forgery and use of forgery, adding to an existing defamation complaint.

Marine Le Pen’s Stance Amid Frictions Within the National Rally

Marine Le Pen offered her first public reaction in a brief statement to La Tribune Dimanche, declaring, “I have total confidence in Jordan,” as reported by the sources. Initially, Le Pen dismissed the investigation as a political “barbouzerie” and promised to dismantle what she termed heavy and crude manipulations.

Le Pen is currently the frontrunner in early opinion polls for the presidency. She had designated Bardella as her replacement in case of a judicial disqualification, or as her presumptive prime minister if victorious. Yet, underlying tensions have emerged between the two leaders over policy nuances regarding pensions and the public ban on Islamic headscarves, which Bardella attributed to differing sensibilities.

Photo: rtbf.be

Internal friction has also surfaced among their respective entourages. In late August, Le Pen dismissed François Durvye, an economic adviser close to Bardella, and integrated her niece Marion Maréchal into the campaign apparatus, as noted by the sources.

Public Sentiment and Broader Political Reactions

On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, President Emmanuel Macron condemned the leaked messages as “very serious and unacceptable,” according to the sources. Bardella fired back on X, writing, “After October 7, 2023, I walked the streets of Paris, and went to Israel. Not him,” referencing a Paris march against antisemitism and his subsequent travel.

Public opinion remains sharply divided over the revelations, according to a YouGov poll published on Saturday, October 3, 2026, by the Huffington Post. The survey of 1,007 respondents, conducted between September 29 and October 1, found that 60% of French citizens view the remarks attributed to Bardella as serious—including 36% who deem them “very serious” and 24% “fairly serious”—while 29% view them as not serious.

Polling Metric (YouGov / HuffPost)	Overall Public Response	National Rally Sympathizers
View remarks as “serious”	60%	Not specified (Majority view remarks as “not serious”)
View remarks as “not serious”	29%	62% (with 34% “not serious at all”)
Think Bardella should resign as RN president	38%	8% (92% say he should stay)
Think Le Pen should distance herself from Bardella	35%	5% (90% say she should not)

Despite the majority of the French public categorizing the alleged statements as serious, only 38% of respondents believe Bardella should step down as party president, while 47% think he should remain in post. Furthermore, 45% stated that Marine Le Pen should not distance herself from him, against 35% who believe she should, reflecting deep partisan divides where National Rally supporters overwhelmingly reject any severing of ties.

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