PARIS — Jordan Bardella is little known outside of France. But if Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), wins next spring’s presidential election—as appears increasingly likely—he will, she says, be her prime minister. The question is whether the growing scandal around Bardella will cause Le Pen to change her mind and, if not, how that will affect her chances of victory. The scandal kicked off on September 28, when the French investigative news outlet Mediapart reported that an examination of written exchanges from 2013 had revealed barefaced antisemitic remarks by Bardella. “The Jew has to dominate other people, crush them and rob them,” read one message. On Oct. 1, after Bardella denied the veracity of the claims, Mediapart published the full set of exchanges. Mediapart’s source, whom one can assume is close to the RN, downloaded the messages from Meta. Bardella still calls the texts “crude forgeries,” but there can be little doubt that the messages were sent from an account in his name. This puts Le Pen in a tough spot. She has spent the las