French far-right leader Bardella refutes anti-Semitism allegations

The president of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally or RN), Jordan Bardella , has denied allegations of anti-Semitism.

Bardella’s refutation on Monday followed the publication of a report by the Mediapart outlet alleging that the politician sent anti-Semitic private messages a decade ago. The report emerged shortly after RN secured a record 14 seats in the Senate, confirming its strong prospects ahead of presidential elections early next year.

Mediapart wrote that in a chat, Bardella had said: “The Jew has to dominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them; a Zionist is necessarily a Jew, and fundamentally so.”