PARIS (Reuters) — French far-right leader Jordan Bardella said on Monday he had filed a defamation lawsuit against investigative website Mediapart over a report alleging he made antisemitic remarks in private messages over a decade ago, saying the story was an effort to “destabilize” campaigning ahead of next year’s election.

The 31-year-old leads the far-right National Rally (RN) party, which is seeking to clear its racist image and build close ties with Israel. The party’s candidate, Marine Le Pen, is leading polls for the April presidential election.

Mediapart, in a report published on Monday, said it had reviewed dozens of private messages from 2013 to 2015 — the early years of Bardella’s career in the National Front, the forerunner of the RN — that it said showed a pattern of antisemitic and conspiratorial rhetoric.

Mediapart cited one message in which it said Bardella claimed, “All the banks are owned by Jews.”

The left-leaning outlet, which has a long history of unearthing political scandals in France, said it had independently authenticated the private messages. Reuters did not independently authenticate them.

Mediapart said it also drew on first-hand accounts of former party colleagues, whom it identified by first name and last initial.

Speaking on broadcaster........

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