PARIS — France’s far-right leaders have met the ambassadors of Germany and Israel in recent months as their party, once deemed antisemitic, seeks to court foreign envoys in the run-up to next year’s presidential elections.

Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party is eyeing its best chance yet at taking power, with President Emmanuel Macron stepping down after hitting the two-term limit.

Le Pen hopes to run for president for a fourth time in 2027, after twice making it to the runoffs against Macron in the last two votes.

But if an appeals court in July bars the 57-year-old from public office over an alleged fake jobs scam in the European Parliament, her lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 30, is expected to run in her place.

France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population, at around half a million people.

Le Pen has long sought to make the party she inherited from her father Jean-Marie more palatable, including by distancing it from the antisemitic legacy of a man convicted for Holocaust denial.

As polls suggest she or Bardella could well lead in the first round of the election, the strategy seems to have paid off.

Bardella, who is RN party leader after taking over from Le Pen, in February met the German ambassador, his party and a participant said.

The embassy did not confirm the meeting.

But a diplomatic source told AFP it was “the responsibility of a foreign mission to maintain contacts with all the political forces in the host country concerned.”

Germany has long been among Israel’s staunchest allies,........

© The Times of Israel