Jordan Bardella threatens suit over antisemitism report

French far-right leader Jordan Bardella threatened new legal action on Friday after Le Canard enchaine accused him of deleting alleged antisemitic messages from an old Facebook account.

Bardella, 31, heads the National Rally and is a top ally of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen. He has been under pressure since French investigative website Mediapart reported in September that he made remarks disparaging Jewish people in 2013. Mediapart said its report was based on authenticated comments in private chats.

Bardella has denied the allegations. He said he does not have a Facebook account and had not used the social network “for a very long time”.

Le Canard enchaine said on Friday that Bardella deleted data from one of his two Facebook accounts after the alleged 2013 writings were made public. The weekly said it had “extracts of private conversations” showing that “all the data” from an account Bardella used during his early years as an activist in the National Front was deleted between September 28 and October 2.

Bardella called the report “completely false” and wrote on X that “a further defamation suit will be filed in response”. A member of his team said Bardella had “never logged into any Facebook account nor deleted any messages” and called the report “further proof of the ongoing manipulation”.

Bardella has already filed a defamation complaint against Mediapart over the original claims.

The allegations come six months before voters are due to choose a replacement for President Emmanuel Macron. Le Pen is leading opinion polls, and Bardella is tipped to become prime minister if she wins the presidency.

Bardella has been central to Le Pen's effort to distance the National Rally from the legacy of its founder, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was openly antisemitic. Bardella visited Israel in 2025, the first such visit by a French far-right leader, as part of an effort to show the party's changed image.