🇫🇷🗳 Rumours are surfacing about an ongoing purge inside Rassemblent Nationale (National Rally, RN) targeting Jordan Bardella's allies in the party which may culminate with the ousting of Bardella or at the very least, his sidelining to a backstage role.

The allegations of Bardella making antisemitic comments in a private groupchat 13 years ago became the perfect excuse for Marine Le Pen to reassert control of RN as Bardella was beginning to overshadow her as there is much uncertainty regarding Le Pen's ability to run for president due to her ongoing trial.

Le Pen is also weary of the antisemitic label returning on RN as she worked for decades to remove the extremist label and controversial nature of the party founded (as National Front) by her father, Jean-Marie and Pierre Bosquet, an ex-Waffen SS volunteer for the Charlemagne Division.

Le Pen and Bardella appealed repeatedly in the past to Jews in France for support and defended Israel for the genocide it committed in Gaza. Marine Le Pen criticised Emmanuel Macron when he decided to recognise Palestinian statehood and met with Israeli officials asking for their support in the upcoming presidential elections. Bardella even visited Israel and spoke in Jerusalem as part of a conference on combating antisemitism.

The connections Bardella made with Israeli politicians in Benjamin Netanyahu's camp paid off it seems as Israeli minister for the diaspora, Amichai Chikli, came out in his defense on X/Twitter. Netanyahu and Likud have been courting for years the anti-islamic civic nationalist parties in Europe as leftist parties were long opposed to Israeli expansionism viewing it as a continuation of Western imperialism.

@CIG_telegram