At first glance, the latest scandal around party president Jordan Bardella not only could overshadowed Marine Le Pen’s populist efforts to run for presidency in 2027 but it also could stop the rapid surge of their far-right party – Rassemblement National – National Rally (RN). But then came chaos – violence across France attributed to ultra-left groups – best friend of the far-right.
The abovementioned anti-semitism-related scandal was triggered by French investigative journalists’ revelations of messages (e-mails and app comments) between 2013 and 2015 attributed to the then teenager Bardella. The scandal broke out when in budget debates in the French Assembly, presidential candidate Le Pen wanted to show her credibility on public finances.
Bardella said the case was an attempt to damage RN as Le Pen tops the polls before the 2027 presidential election. ’We are seeing the beginnings of a total war, an attempt to destabilise the presidential campaign,’ he said.
Commenting on the scandal, Marine Le Pen said her confidence in Bardella remained unchanged. However, the situation is quite awkward since she herself brought Bardella as the party’s face in the 2020s and now her own protégé’s case can now sink her. It goes far beyond confidence. It is the moment when she either seizes the opportunity to capture the long-sought power or, loses it for good.
It should be noted that it took more than a decade for Marine Le Pen to succeed in transforming the public image of the RN party – previously called the Front National – into a populist far-right image of a party with real chances of winning both parliamentary and presidential elections in France. In order to boost popularity ratings, the desperate duo of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella was even ready to take extraordinary steps such as Bardella’s unprecedented visit to Israel in 2025, in an attempt to demonstrate the RN’s new credentials.
Although Marine started the makeover of the party with expelling her own father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen from the ranks of the movement in 2015 for his openly Nazi statements, blatant anti-semitism, racism and strong anti-immigration sentiment continued to be present within the party up to the level that certain remarks and moves were considered by other politicians ’shameful’ and ’beyond intolerable’. Here are some examples.
- In 2022, MP Grégoire de Fournas said to MP Carlos Martens Bilongo: ’He should go back to Africa!’
- In 2023, Bardella told a TV interviewer he did not think Jean-Marie Le Pen was anti-semitic.
- In 2024, a photo of candidate Ludivine Daoudi was circulating in social media wearing a Nazi Luftwaffe cap bearing a swastika.
It is worth quoting French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s words who, responding to the journalistic investigation into Bardella’s early messages, wrote on social media: ’To all those with a short memory: anti-semitism isn’t an accident in the RN, it’s that party’s history. That’s the real face of the far right.’
And this is exactly what Marine Le Pen wanted to leave behind given that she was making great efforts to portray the RN as a protector of French Jews from Islamist threats and a strong supporter of Israel. However, even though she seemed determined in distancing the RN from its anti-semitic past, she never expected her own deputy to undermine her plans, thereby destorying all her previous efforts to dispel RN’s Nazi image.
But this game is not over yet; everything is still possible. Interestingly, just as Marine Le Pen – one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal European sympathisers and protégé – finds herself in trouble, mass riots broke out in France, coupled with a nationwide wave of vandalism causing serious damage – at the same time giving a massive boost to the far right’s popularity.
’We are experiencing a crisis of confidence,’ declared presidential candidate Marine Le Pen after the first day of riots. She described the situation as ’a threat to democracy’. Le Pen started to portray herself as the presidential candidate of ’a pacified France’. In addition, Jordan Bardella said the RN is the only party which is able to restore order in the country.
With the image of the collapsed iconic clock tower of the Limoges Town Hall still fresh on our minds, the scandal over Bardella’s old messages has gone with the wind – that chapter ended and a new one has already begun in France.
A mere coincidence? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. There are now three facts in this story: Marine Le Pen will stop at nothing for power and, France is under seige right now and, the riots are just reshaping the contours of the French presidential race.
The question is, how the RN party, known for repeated incidents of racism and anti-semitism, not to mention corruption scandals and controversial ties with Moscow, would be able to properly run one of Europe’s developed democracies which has been suffering a deep crisis due to the high cost of living and the dwindling quality of public services. Once in power, would Le Pen’s party be able to offer real solutions for the whole country or, would it just further deepen polarization in France, one of the largest recipient countries of mass migration in Europe?
These questions remain unanswered while European citizens and leaders both in France and across the EU, who reject extremists views, are monitoring the situation with growing concern to see the RN’s upsurge.
