‘All banks are owned by Jews’: Remarks attributed to MP shake France’s far right - Middle East Eye
Mediapart plunged the French far right into chaos on Monday after reporting that Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (RN) party, had made antisemitic comments in private messages.
Bardella, 31, was fighting for his political career on Tuesday after the investigative outlet obtained exchanges dating from 2013 to 2015.
According to Mediapart, the messages show Bardella promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, banks, the French government, and a supposed “new world order dominated by Israel”.
Bardella was 17 years old when the earliest exchanges reportedly took place and had recently joined the party under far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Bardella denied making the comments and described the reports as part of a “total war” to derail Le Pen’s 2027 presidential campaign.
Mediapart described him as having an “obsession with the supposed Judeo-Zionist control of the country”.
The outlet said it had authenticated the private exchanges but had not publicly released the messages.
In messages cited by Mediapart, Bardella allegedly wrote that “all banks are owned by Jews” and that “the Jew must dominate other peoples, crush them and rob them; a Zionist is necessarily Jewish, and profoundly Jewish. In France, two clear examples are BHL (Bernard-Henri Levy) or (Jacques) Attali. And that is what they want, a New World Order dominated by Israel, with Jerusalem, of course, as its capital.”
Writer Bernard-Henri Levy is seen as a controversial public figure in France. He has defended Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its siege of the territory, and has previously spoken out against Bardella and the National Rally.
In another exchange, Bardella reportedly complained that “the most important ministries fall to people for whom the interests of Israel and banking take priority over French interests”, referring to three ministers in then-President François Hollande’s government.
Bardella has played a central role in attempting to soften the far-right’s image and appeal to younger voters.
He has also gone out of his way to court Israel, paying homage to the country during a visit in 2025 and warning against rising antisemitism in France.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has called for greater engagement with far-right parties in Europe as ruling parties across Europe increasingly see the country as a liability.
Far-right parties see appeals to Israel as part of a wider strategy that seeks to soften their far-right image while focusing on rhetoric against Muslims and immigrants.
Bardella has spoken against a Palestinian state as well as Israel’s war on Gaza.
Mediapart also cited the former head of the far-right National Front Youth in Seine-Saint-Denis, who knew Bardella through the local party branch between 2013 and 2014.
Laurent Nunez said Bardella showed an interest in theories about Adolf Hitler’s possible survival after the Second World War.
Le Pen, the far-right presidential candidate and former National Rally leader, defended her ally against the accusations and expressed “total confidence” in him. Le Pen is the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a major political figure in France and founder of the far-right National Front, which later became the National Rally.
Le Pen ranks among the favourites in the election, in which incumbent President Emmanuel Macron will not stand.
She warned that “our opponents will do absolutely anything - including the most disgusting things - to try to derail this momentum”.
