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FRANCIA Darmanin says Bardella is lying after antisemitic 2013 messages were authenticated
France’s justice minister challenged the political credibility of the National Rally leader after Mediapart said it had verified messages attributed to him. Jordan Bardella denies writing them and says he will file a forgery complaint.
The dispute over antisemitic messages from 2013 attributed to Jordan Bardella escalated in France on Thursday after Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin accused him of lying when denying he wrote them.
According to France Info and Le Monde, Mediapart said it was able to authenticate the private messages through a data extraction involving Meta and a bailiff’s formal record. The investigative outlet says it is fully certain of what it published and released excerpts from private Facebook Messenger conversations.
Bardella, the president of National Rally, has stuck to his defense and rejected Mediapart’s evidence. He described it as fake proof and said he would file a complaint for forgery and use of forgery. He also filed a defamation complaint, according to France Info.
Speaking on RTL, as cited by France Info, Darmanin said it was fairly obvious that a 17- or 18-year-old activist from the former National Front who admired Alain Soral could have been antisemitic. He added that a strategy based on lying to the French raises serious doubts about Bardella’s ability to hold political responsibility.
France Info also reported that Mediapart journalist Antton Rouget accused Bardella of again saying something false in his response to the evidence. Rouget said the extraction of the messages from Meta’s servers took place on August 16.
Political reactions in France have been mixed. National Rally MEP Matthieu Valet ruled out Bardella leaving the party leadership and argued that the matter should be judged on evidence and under the rule of law. By contrast, Olivier Faure said Bardella should resign, while Eric Coquerel linked the episode to what he described as a racist continuity within National Rally, according to France Info.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
