Jordan Bardella, president of the Rassemblement National (RN), was the target of yet another vicious attack, this time on public television. On Monday, November 3rd, during a programme on France 5, a journalist drew a parallel between Bardella and Hitler, prompting the RN to say it would refer the matter to the independent media regulatory authority.
Caroline Michel-Aguirre, a journalist from the news magazine L’Obs, was invited onto the set of the programme C dans l’air, to discuss current affairs. As the guests on the set were discussing the rise of the RN in the polls and the popularity of the party’s young president, Jordan Bardella, who has embarked on a tour of France to promote his new book, Ce que veulent les Français (‘What the French Want’), the journalist offered a highly questionable historical analogy.
“Entrepreneurs are taking a risk because some of them are tightening their relations with Jordan Bardella and saying to themselves: we’re going to take control of his brain. He’s young, he doesn’t know anything, we’re going to give him a liberal [in the French sense of the term, i.e., favourable to economic freedoms] agenda,” she explained, describing later the situation as the “Von Papen effect.” By this expression, the journalist was referring to the alliance formed between the conservative Franz von Papen, who allied himself with Hitler and his party in 1932, thinking he could manipulate him. With this support, Hitler was able to come to power, only to then get rid of his allies of convenience. The ‘manipulation’ so hoped for by Von Papen never took place.
Stung to the quick, RN president Bardella immediately responded to this provocation on X:
The ‘von Papen effect’: better and better! The public service’s conception of debate: four speakers, all agreeing to compare me to Hitler, without any nuance or moderation on the part of the presenter, who looked on approvingly. Through me, millions of French people are being insulted, along with their money.
Bardella ended his response with the words “Roll on privatisation!”—referring to his party being in favour of privatising public broadcasting, which it accuses of outrageously skewing the political debate at the taxpayer’s expense. Marine Le Pen assured Bardella of her support.
The RN announced that it would refer the matter to ARCOM, the independent media regulatory authority, demanding that it addresses the scandalous remarks. MP Caroline Parmentier sent a letter to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, denouncing the “unspeakable” practices of French public service media.
The reductio ad hitlerum is one of the favourite tactics of the mainstream media and left-wing parties struggling to find arguments against the national right-wing parties, not only in France but also elsewhere in Europe. A few months ago, Herbert Kickl, a member of the FPÖ in Austria, was the target of a defamatory campaign likening him to Hitler in a YouTube clip. The courts ultimately ruled in his favour and ordered the removal of the offending video.
