Bardella, the great « de-demonization » cleanup: when the veneer cracks, the old National Rally comes back through the window
Analysis | Artia13.city
It seems that the National Rally has changed.
New name. New suits. New ties. New lines carefully rehearsed in front of the cameras.
Same political recipe, but with cleaner packaging.
And then comes September 2026, with that little annoyance that political communication hates above all else: the archives .
Mediapart claims to have independently authenticated dozens of private conversations attributed to Jordan Bardella between 2013 and 2015. Among the reported statements are anti-Semitic and conspiracy theories about Jews, banks, Israel and the so-called « new world order ».
And so the « de-demonization » effort is back to settle its accounts.
The National Rally had promised a major cleanup
For years, the National Rally has claimed to have changed.
Jean-Marie Le Pen? The past.
Old mistakes? That’s in the past.
The historical anti-Semitism of a part of the National Front? That’s in the past.
Shady networks? That’s in the past.
The message is clear: move along, there’s nothing more to see.
Except that political history has a curious habit: it keeps the invoices.
And when Mediapart publishes today exchanges attributed to the young Bardella , they do not exactly resemble the handbook of the perfect little moderate republican.
According to the investigation, it contains the old tropes of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories: banks, Jews, Zionism, world domination, manipulation of events.
In other words, the theories that the « de-demonization » campaign would like to see disappear under a layer of electoral makeup.
Soral: the old software with an internet connection
Alain Soral appears in the middle of this story.
For those who may have missed this marvelous production of French politics, Soral is a figure of the radical far right, founder of Equality & Reconciliation and author of conspiracy and anti-Semitic theories.
He has been the subject of several court convictions, notably for anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial remarks.
According to Mediapart , the conversations attributed to Bardella show that he had, at the time, taken up or approved some of Soral ‘s analyses.
And at that point, inevitably, storytelling becomes less comfortable.
Because the problem with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is that they don’t disappear when you replace the fatigues with a navy blue suit.
Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories still exist.
And all around: a whole little galaxy
The case is not limited to the name of Soral.
Mediapart specifically mentions Frédéric Chatillon , a former GUD executive and close associate of Marine Le Pen, presented as one of the links between certain FN networks and the Soralian environment.
Other names also appear in investigations devoted to the political environment of this period.
The phenomenon therefore deserves to be studied in detail.
What has the « de-demonization » process actually changed in the networks, references, and political cultures of the French far right?
Because a party does not become democratic simply because its leaders have discovered well-tailored suits.
The Bardella problem: the « new RN » is always forced to talk about the old one
This is where the matter becomes politically embarrassing.
Jordan Bardella is now the president of the RN.
The party wants to appear as a governing party.
Marine Le Pen presents him as her future Prime Minister in the event of a presidential victory in 2027.
And Mediapart publishes documents supposedly showing, in the young Bardella, a proximity to discourses that are precisely the opposite of this respectable image.
The contrast is stark.
On one side:
« We have changed. »
On the other hand:
conversations attributed to Bardella that Mediapart claims to have authenticated.
And in the middle:
« They are crude forgeries. »
The justice system will obviously have to examine what needs to be examined.
But politically, one question remains.
Why is it constantly necessary to reopen the closet to check that the RN’s past is no longer there?
Jean-Marie Le Pen is not a historical anecdote
We must also remember what the National Front is.
The party was not born in 2018 with a new logo and a TikTok strategy.
He was born in 1972 .
Its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has been convicted several times for racist and anti-Semitic remarks.
In 1987, he notably described the gas chambers of the Second World War as a « detail » of history.
This is the political heritage that the National Rally has been trying to distance itself from for years.
And this story explains why every new case involving antisemitism is politically explosive.
The most fascinating thing: the machine for whitewashing the past
The method is actually quite simple.
Step 1: Change the name.
Step 2: Change the costumes.
Step 3: Talk about purchasing power.
Step 4: Explain that « the system » is responsible for everything.
Step 5: Explain that the party has changed.
Step 6: Discover that the Internet, unlike communicators, does not have an eraser.
This is probably the biggest problem with modern political communication.
A speech can be rewritten.
We can remake the poster.
A strategy can be changed.
But screenshots, archives, old messages and old testimonies have this unfortunate tendency to survive.
The Internet is definitely a very bad supporter of the National Rally.
The question the National Rally would prefer to avoid
The subject is ultimately not just:
« Did Jordan Bardella write these messages? »
This question will have to be decided by examining the evidence and, possibly, by the courts.
The political question is also:
What has the National Rally actually abandoned from its former political culture?
Because the process of removing the demonization is not a cosmetic operation.
You don’t become respectable simply by replacing old posters with Instagram photos.
And above all, we are not asking the French to forget the history of a party simply because its new president wears a tie better.
Conclusion: the suit is new, and so are the archives.
The National Rally would like to be judged on its present actions.
That’s legitimate.
But when a party aspires to govern France, its political past inevitably becomes a public issue .
And when a journalistic investigation as serious as Mediapart ‘s emerges, the response cannot be solely:
« It’s a manipulation. »
The evidence needed to demonstrate this must be produced.
Because if the messages are false, the legal process will prove it.
And if they are authentic, then the question will change completely in nature.
It will no longer be just a story about old messages.
This will be a question about the reality of the claimed break with the old world of the National Front .
The « de-demonization » promised a new National Rally.
The archives, for their part, come to ask for the bill.
And obviously, someone forgot to throw away the receipts.
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Main sources: Mediapart, Le Monde , Reuters.
