Justice. "France with Jordan Bardella": Investigation opened after racist remarks on the Facebook group

The National Center for Combating Online Hate is investigating the authors of racist comments made on a Facebook group called "France with Jordan Bardella ," to which National Rally officials belonged, the Paris prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday.

LFI MP Thomas Portes announced on June 5 that he had filed a report with the Paris public prosecutor, citing in particular the presence of nine RN MPs. The National Center for Combating Online Hate (PNLH) "carried out investigations to identify the authors of the comments made online," the public prosecutor stated.

"We're missing a guy with a little mustache."

In early June, the online media outlet Les Jours revealed that many elected officials and executives of the far-right party belonged to this Facebook group , causing an outcry, particularly on the left. The RN had wanted to minimize its scope, although several of its executives and elected officials were administrators of some of these groups, making them responsible for moderation. "On their part, this shows a form of amateurism," regretted at the time an RN MP who was not targeted, deploring that "the moderators are not doing their job." "Arabs out," "France is led by Zionist Jews," "we are missing a guy with a little mustache. It would all be over very quickly. Sorry, I forgot his name," one of these groups, entitled "France with Jordan Bardella," read in particular. The RN MPs had been asked in June by their leadership to leave all Facebook groups on which contentious comments had been published, as revealed by franceinfo.

The episode highlighted the difficulty for the National Rally in achieving its full professionalization, sending it back to the early legislative elections of 2024, when many candidates nominated by the party had been singled out for racist remarks, past or recent.