A minor bump on the French far right's road to power, or a car crash that wipes out years of rebranding? Bombshell allegations of past anti-Semitic tropes by the man Marine Le Pen has touted as her future prime minister could test her years-long effort to convince French voters that the National Rally is a party of government, rather than the fringe far-right National Front of old.
We examine the evidence and hear the denial from 31-year-old Jordan Bardella. We also chart his rise to being groomed as an eventual stand-in for the presidential frontrunner after an appeals court allowed Le Pen to run despite her corruption conviction.
We ask how the accusations land for a party that, since the October 7 attacks against Israel, has sought to portray itself as a rampart defending Frances Jewish community against anti-Semitism.
Le Pen's gut reaction was to blast the report by investigative news website Mediapart as a plot, a conspiracy. We happen to live in an age when conspiracy theories flow freely: including, of course, the conspiracy theory that Jews secretly run the world.
So what could these allegations mean for Marine Le Pen's prospects in 2027?
Produced by François Picard, Charles Wente, Rebecca Gnignati, Guillaume Gougeon and Ilayda Habip
