Anti-Semitic comments attributed to Jordan Bardella: Marine Le Pen denounces manipulation and wants to counterattack

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• Direct Anti-Semitic writings attributed to Jordan Bardella: “We are not going to let this happen,” says Marine Le Pen, who wants to “counter-attack” against Mediapart

Mediapart published on Monday anti-Semitic messages dating from 2013 attributed to the current president of the RN. He announced that he had filed a complaint for defamation.

What you need to know

The RN is trying to stand up. Mediapart published Monday, September 28, anti-Semitic messages dating from 2013 attributed to Jordan Bardella, then a young National Front activist. “They want to assassinate me politically,” the president of the National Rally denounced to the press on Tuesday, September 29, denouncing “the beginnings of a total war” against his party. “We are not going to let this happen,” added Marine Le Pen, who announced that she wanted to “counter-attack” in the face of information from Mediapart. Follow our live stream.

• Anti-Semitic remarks recorded in writing. This investigation lasting several months is based on private conversations, which Mediapart claims to have been able to authenticate, which were allegedly written by Jordan Bardella in the summer of 2013, when he was between 17 and 18 years old. These exchanges, of which the newspaper does not specify the recipient(s), transcribe several anti-Semitic comments. “The banks are all owned by Jews”; “The Jew must dominate [sic] other peoples, crush them and steal from them, a Zionist is necessarily Jewish, and deeply,” the future president of the RN would have written.

• A complaint filed. Jordan Bardella, expected to become Prime Minister of Marine Le Pen if the RN wins the presidential election, announced on CNews that his lawyer "has filed a defamation complaint". “Everything will be done (…) to destabilize the campaign” of the National Rally and “demolish it politically”, he added, estimating that “either Mediapart is at the head of this operation, or Mediapart itself is being manipulated by people who have an interest in it”.

• The Crif raises its voice. “It is an illustration of the limits of the demonization of the National Rally,” Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, told AFP. This party “has never been part of the Republican arc and will never be part of it,” Licra also commented.

franceinfo

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#BARDELLA Beyond this long point to defend Jordan Bardella, let us still note an announcement. Senator from Gironde Edwige Diaz has been appointed president of the new RN group in the Senate.

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#BARDELLA "We are going to counter-attack and we are going to dismantle this manipulation", declares Marine Le Pen in turn about the Mediapart revelations. She also targets the investigative newspaper, which she describes as “militant, far-left” media.

Response from franceinfo

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Marine Le Pen now discusses the RN's strategy, the counter-budget that she will present and the criticisms from the political and media world. "I don't hear a substantive argument to say 'this is the reason why I disagree with the RN', it's just insults, insults and slander."

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#BARDELLA "If these attacks are taking place at this time, it is because Marine Le Pen is on the verge of becoming President of the Republic", declares in turn Eric Ciotti, president of the UDR party, ally of the RN. “This is all defamation and caricature.”

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#BARDELLA In front of RN parliamentarians, Jordan Bardella returns to the revelations from Mediapart. He also denounces "the beginnings of a total war" against his party and attempts at destabilization which will "target us one by one".

Response from franceinfo

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“This operation was most certainly prepared in the scenario where I was a candidate in the presidential election (...) If there are written elements, I will file complaints for forgery and use of forgery,” also declares the president of the RN. “The goal is to kill my political career.”

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#BARDELLA The RN parliamentarians, who meet at the National Assembly two days after the results of the senatorial elections, welcome Jordan Bardella with applause. The party president speaks in front of the cameras to discuss these results, with Marine Le Pen at his side. The far-right movement wants to show its unity in the wake of the Mediapart revelations.

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#BARDELLA "They want to assassinate me politically", declared Jordan Bardella to the press in front of the National Assembly, the day after the Mediapart revelations. “I challenge you to find a position during my political career that would be akin to anti-Semitism,” also says the president of the RN, who claims to be supported by Marine Le Pen.

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#BARDELLALThe RN deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy accused at the microphone of LCI this morning "the anti-Semitic scum" purged by Marine Le Pen upon her arrival at the head of the National Front of having disclosed to Mediapart anti-Semitic messages from Jordan Bardella, the veracity of which he also denied. He denounced a “political force which unfortunately, at the beginning of the 2010s, was numerous, well organized like the Trotskyists and which was fought”.

update on the news

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A little late, here is an update on the news from this Tuesday, September 29:

• #DEBTFrench public debt reached 3,595.5 billion euros in the second quarter, or 119% of GDP, according to INSEE, which constitutes a record.

• #BARDELLA The political class continues to react to the anti-Semitic remarks attributed to Jordan Bardella by Mediapart. “The extreme right remains the extreme right,” denounced the Minister for Europe Benjamin Haddad, while Manuel Bompard (LFI) estimated that the president of the RN “should not play a major role” in the country if the writings are proven.

• #LYCEES Several high schools are affected by blockages in France, during a day otherwise marked by strikes in the civil service. In Paris, “less than ten” high schools are affected by “blockade attempts”, according to the rectorate.

• #WEATHER Lozère, Gard and Hérault will be placed on orange alert from midnight due to a risk of rain, flooding and storms, Météo-France announced.

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#BARDELLA Many politicians continue to react to anti-Semitic remarks attributed to Jordan Bardella. On franceinfo, Dominique de Villepin believes that “if these comments were made, they are unacceptable”. Jean-François Copé (LR), mayor of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), judges that these writings "repeat all the clichés of anti-Semitism" while Thomas Ménage, deputy and spokesperson for the RN, denounced on France 2 a "set-up the day after the result in the senatorial elections", where the RN made a breakthrough. “Neither the Jordan Bardella of today nor the Jordan Bardella of ten years ago could have made these delusional comments.”

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#BARDELLA “These comments are absolutely revolting and if they are accurate, they demonstrate that anti-Semitism is the DNA of the French extreme right,” denounces the coordinator of France Insoumise, Manuel Bompard, on France Inter. According to him, the president of the RN "should not play a major role" in the country if the writings are proven.

Response from franceinfo

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#LYCEES Asked about the high school students' movement, and Sébastien Lecornu's accusations of "irresponsible overbidding" by LFI, Manuel Bompard considers it normal that the LFI movement "supports" and calls for this protest to be amplified. The government does not have to send "police officers with tear gas grenade launchers" in front of high school students, also believes the coordinator, who calls on the deputies of his group to go alongside the high school students. He also “deplores” the violence, which he considers marginal.