The facts
Jordan Bardella, the 31-year-old president of France's far-right Rassemblement National, denies that antisemitic messages attributed to him were his own. Mediapart published its evidence on Thursday, October 1: excerpts from 2013 Facebook Messenger conversations in which Bardella, then 17, reprised some of the worst antisemitic tropes, according to the site. Mediapart says two unidentified sources once close to Bardella shared the conversations; it published screenshots, reported Meta had authenticated them, and had the data extraction certified by a court bailiff. Biographical details in the messages confirmed the account belonged to the current RN president, the site says, and at the end of 2013 Bardella created a new Facebook profile devoted to his political career. Mediapart also reported emails showing Bardella was "deeply interested" in the ideas of Alain Soral, a notorious antisemite and conspiracy theorist, at least between 2012 and 2014.
Bardella responded on X, mocking "crude fabrications" and "vile comments I obviously never made", and announced a new lawsuit for forgery and use of forgery. The day before, he wrote that he "was not [in politics] at 17; I was just beginning my life". A member of his inner circle insisted to Le Monde that "he has always stood for the same things" and "there has never been any antisemitism on his part". Marine Le Pen warned that Mediapart "needs to put on a Kevlar suit", while RN lawmakers called the outlet a "rag" and an arm of the "far left". Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, said: "If the published evidence is accurate, the antisemitism in the remarks attributed to Jordan Bardella is a stinging repudiation of the RN's de-demonization strategy". Albert Myara, president of the Jewish community of Kremlin-Bicêtre, said he was ready to forgive, citing repentance.
Our take
Here is the aspiring prime minister of France, caught with his hand in the 2013 Messenger cookie jar of bigotry, and his defense is that at 17 he was "just beginning my life". Beginning? Jordan, you had a Front National youth wing membership, a DM habit soaked in the worst antisemitic tropes, and a soft spot for Alain Soral's conspiracy sewage. Within months you launched a Facebook profile devoted to your political career. That is not the beginning of a life. That is the middle of a radicalization arc with a posting schedule.
But the truly beautiful part is his own inner circle. Asked to clarify the "just beginning my life" post, an ally told Le Monde that Bardella "has always stood for the same things". Read that again. The man is accused of typing antisemitic filth as a teenager, and the official line is that he has always stood for the same things. Either he changed, in which case the "same things" line is a lie, or he did not change, in which case congratulations, you just confirmed the messages.
And the rest of this circus. Party officials clutched at the poor spelling in the messages as proof their boy could never have written them, as if bigots are famous for orthography. One parliamentarian asked who had never "drawn a swastika with a compass on a desk", a hell of a thing to volunteer while defending someone else. Another MP tried to clear Bardella by invoking the Mossad, as though Israeli intelligence audits every French teenager's DMs. Le Pen told the press Mediapart needs a Kevlar suit, the kind of line you drop when you have nothing else.
Bardella is not asking for forgiveness, which requires admitting you did something. He wants you to believe a 17-year-old political operative was basically a newborn who had never heard of politics. Fuck off with that.
