He celebrated his first year at the head of the National Rally in a funny way. “I don’t believe that Jean-Marie Le Pen was anti-Semitic.” With one sentence, Jordan Bardella plunged his party into yet another controversy over its sulphurous past. Interviewed last Sunday on BFMTV on the anti-Semitism of the founder of the National Front, the current president of the RN preferred to kick in: “I do not probe the hearts and the kidneys, but I do not believe it”, he estimated, while declaring itself in total disagreement with these positions. In the process, the government and other opposition parties contested the presence of its movement at the “civic march” against anti-Semitism, scheduled for this Sunday in Paris.
RN elected officials very annoyed on the sets
This departure from the road comes at the worst time, as the movement has striven in recent weeks to present itself as the “best shield of French people of Jewish faith” against Islamism, a step considered essential in its normalization strategy. Jordan Bardella’s statement thus put the focus back on the numerous anti-Semitic statements by Jean-Marie Le Pen, which resulted in him being condemned by the courts on several occasions: “point of detail” concerning the gas chambers, his verbal attacks against Jewish journalists in the middle of a meetingTHE “Mr Durafour crematorium” addressed to a minister.
And this week, a number of National Rally elected officials experienced a lot of difficulty in describing the former slippages of the “Menhir”, although excluded by Marine Le Pen in 2015. “I don’t know Jean-Marie Le Pen… I don’t want that “we are locked into an archeology debate”, dodged for long minutes on CNews the deputy Laurent Jacobelli, spokesperson for the RN. “It doesn’t interest me and it doesn’t interest anyone in France,” also swept by BFMTV Jean-Philippe TanguyMP close to Marine Le Pen.
An argument for the opponents
These oratorical precautions were denounced by the Jewish institutions of France and the adversaries of the RN, who reactivated the “cordon santé” for this Sunday’s march. “In my opinion, the RN has no place in this demonstration,” scathed the government spokesperson, Olivier Véran, on Wednesday during the report of the Council of Ministers. The presidents of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, at the origin of the call, clarified that they “would not march alongside” Jordan Bardella’s party, while the PS, the PCF and EELV even proposed distancing themselves from it by “a republican cordon”.
“The polls in our favor panic everyone. They need to re-demonize us by bringing up thirty-year-old arguments. Marine Le Pen has always been impeccable on this subject,” says RN deputy Julien Rancoul. “Jordan Bardella made no mistake, he was very clear in his words. Our adversaries recycle old, moldy prejudices because they no longer have an argument to oppose to us. We have been the most consistent in the fight against anti-Semitism for more than ten years,” adds his colleague Julien Odoul.
Jordan Bardella evokes “awkwardness”
The person concerned nevertheless saw fit to go back on his remarks in an attempt to put out the fire that he himself had started. First with a convoluted formula in an interview with JDD Wednesday. “I have never refused to recognize the convictions of Jean-Marie Le Pen by the courts.” Then, more clearly, the boss of the RN admitted having committed “an awkwardness” on the CNews set Thursday evening, specifying that the founder of the National Front had “obviously locked himself into anti-Semitism”.
If the misstep is surprising, it is because since taking power in November 2022, Jordan Bardella had led a course without any notable communication errors, according to the own admission of his detractors. Formidable in debates, effective in the media, the working capacity of the young president was noticed even by the entourage of the head of state, during the first meeting of Saint-Denis. “I don’t agree with anything with him, but in the genre, he’s a real talent, a strong guy. He has no qualms,” François Patriat, the boss of the Renaissance senators, also told us. Will this political error have electoral consequences? So far, the head of the RN lists for the European elections next June is at the top of the polls.