Allah's Willing Executioners

A prominent Australian author is facing charges of child sexual exploitation after being found in possession of child sexual abuse material. Craig Silvey, best known for his youth-focused fiction books, is reportedly not cooperating with investigators.

Silvey, 43, was arrested on Monday after detectives executed a search warrant at his Fremantle home, seizing his electronic devices in the process. He was charged with the possession and distribution of child exploitation material. According to multiple Australian news outlets, detectives allegedly found him “actively engaging” online with other people involved in child exploitation when police arrived. 

On January 13, Silvey appeared at Fremantle Magistrates Court, where prosecutors opposed granting him bail, noting that he was not cooperating with investigators and describing him as a significant flight risk. However, Magistrate Thomas Hall granted Silvey bail with both a $100,000 surety and a $100,000 personal undertaking.

Hall also imposed conditions on Silvey, detailing that he was not allowed to leave Western Australia or engage in any work involving children. He was also told he was only allowed to use the internet for legal advice, banking and medical purposes.

Despite being granted bail, Silvey was not immediately released from custody as he was unable to meet the surety.

Silvey’s work has been widely used as secondary school set texts, led by his bestselling 2009 novel Jasper Jones, which achieved mass adoption in classrooms across Australia and was later adapted into a feature film. The Western Australia Education Minister, Sabine Winton, has said Silvey’s books would be stripped from the curriculum in 2026 while the charges were under investigation, according to ABC Australia.

“The nature of these allegations is deeply concerning,” Winton told ABC. “I have asked the Department of Education to ensure that schools cease using texts by Craig Silvey for the 2026 school year while the allegations are under investigation.”

Following news of his arrest, the City of Subiaco also issued a statement confirming that Silvey would no longer have any affiliation with its Young Writers Award, of which he had been made a patron in 2023.

Silvey’s books were almost all youth-focused, often featuring minor protagonists. One of his most recent novels, Honeybee, follows a 14-year-old “trans kid” struggling with a lack of acceptance and home stability.

The protagonist, Sam, is a boy who identifies as a “girl,” and the novel details Sam being exposed to online and offline predators – including adults who sexualize or take advantage of him. Sam eventually finds “safety and acceptance” in a “found family” which includes a Drag Queen, a suicidal older man named “Vic”, and his neighbor. Sam later adopts the feminine name “Victoria,” a nod to his older male friend.

Silvey has said that he consulted with various trans rights organizations to write Honeybee, including TransFolk of Western Australia, and that he interviewed a number of trans people of various ages and backgrounds in order to be “respectful” of the community. The novel won the 2021 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year in the Fiction category.

Honeybee also inspired a number of schools to create “Honeybee Clubs” – LGBT “safe space” initiatives for minors.

In 2021, Silvey promoted a petition aimed at having all “gender affirming surgeries” subsidized by Medicare. The petition lamented that Medicare was not providing a rebate on all gender affirming surgeries, making them prohibitively expensive for some.

“Medicare still classifies some gender affirming surgeries as cosmetic, meaning they are ineligible for subsidy,” Silvey wrote. “We need to recognise that comprehensive access to this form of health care is essential for members of the Trans and Gender Diverse community. These are not elective, cosmetic procedures. They can and do save lives.”

Around the time of Honeybee’s release, Silvey also took to social media to remind people not to “misgender” his transgender protagonist.

“As it’s Trans Awareness Week, and HONEYBEE is generating a lot of discussion and reviews, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about pronouns, because I’ve noticed Sam being occasionally misgendered out there in the wild,” Silvey wrote. “Pronouns reflect a person’s gender identity, and since Sam identifies as female, it’s respectful practice to use she/her/hers pronouns.”

Silvey is next expected to appear in court on February 10.

reduxx.info

Nigel Farage has topped off a day of Westminster intrigue by unveiling the defection of Robert Jenrick, perhaps the most effective communicator the Conservatives had left until he was purged from the party this morning.

Brexit pioneer Nigel Farage welcomed Robert Jenrick, who has sometimes been described as the de-facto leader of the Conservative Party for the way he overshadowed the elected leadership, to Reform UK on Thursday afternoon, warning any others from Labour and the Conservatives who may wish to defect have until May 7th to do so, when the window closes.

Former Conservative Party immigration minister and, until this morning, shadow justice Minister Robert Jenrick said he’d made no decision to defect from the Conservative Party before he was kicked out by leader Kemi Badenoch for being too close to the poll-topping Reform UK party today. Nevertheless, he said the country is in a truly desperate situation, and the Tory Party stands in the way of taking much-needed action.

Nigel Farage is “obviously” the right person to lead Britain back to prosperity and sound government, and anyone willing to put party politics aside would be able to see that, he said.

Reciting a laundry-list of failures damaging modern Britain, with everything from government failure to forced deindustrialisation, to the destruction of law and order and endlessly open borders, Jenrick said:

…it’s time for the truth. Britain is in decline. From 1970 to 2007, real wages went down by one third every ten years. Since then they’ve flatlined. At the turn of the millennium the average Brit was earning twice as much as the average Pole. By 2031, we are on track to be poorer. Outside London and the South-East, our economy is closer to Bulgaria’s than Germany’s. Today 18-30 year olds are the first Britons to earn less than their parents.

Noting the country is presently experiencing “the most profound change” to its population in history, Jenrick asserted that “net migration is 100 times higher in the 25 years after 1997, than in the 25 years before” and challenged “anyone to argue other than that Britain is completely broken. Those that came before us built a great country, the greatest country in the world, but we are set to lose it. We will for certain if this government is re-elected”.

Evidently this is a Reform defection that may never have happened. Farage’s Thursday afternoon press conference was supposed to be on local democracy and the Reform leader said that while he had been in talks with Jenrick, they were not more progressed with those with many other Conservatives and they had not yet actually got to the point of discussing a defection. Badenoch kicking him out of the party expedited matters, he said, noting she effectively handed him Jenrick “on a plate”.

Adding to the drama, when Mr Farage first called Jenrick onto the stage this afternoon, he failed to materialise. Apparently delayed to his own press conference, he appeared minutes later.

Jenrick, for his part, said it was painful to leave the Conservatives, where he has been a member his whole adult life and has many friends, but “our first loyalty must be to the country… both Labour and the Conservatives broke Britain… Labour started mass migration, but the Conservatives ramped it up”.

Jenrick had previously resigned from a Conservative government where he was immigration minister over the then-Sunak administration not going far enough to curb arrivals. Mr Farage specifically cited this resignation as a sign to him that Jenrick was sincere on wanting to reform border controls, even if the pair have publicly clashed in the past.

In his speech, Mr Jenrick eviscerated his former party and, remarkably, named key figures inside who he identified as having failed. In comments that even by the standards of the now regular flow of ex-Conservatives defecting to Reform are strident, he said:

… the Conservative Party is so compromised that it cannot speak for the country, it cannot opposed Labour’s madness. It is not fit for purpose… the party hasn’t changed and it won’t. The bulk of the party don’t get it, they don’t have the stomach for the radical change that Britain needs… If we don’t get the next government right Britain will likely slip beyond the point of repair. Everything is on this, everything is on this decision.

Top Tory Mel Stride was right to criticise Labour on rising taxes but was complicit on swelling the state himself, while Priti Patel “created the very migration system that enabled five million migrants to come here, the greatest failure of any British government of the post-war period”, Jenrick said.

More broadly, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch purging one of her most effective lieutenants — who has been so much the party’s top media performer for months many would be forgiven for thinking he was, in fact, party leader — before his reappearing in Farage’s stable hours later is the latest and greatest evidence that the great re-alignment of the British right has reached the point of no-return. Underway for more than a decade with then-Prime Minister David Cameron’s calling of a Brexit referendum meant to kill the Tory right for a generation, the long-effective broad coalition between the liberal wets and the sovereigntist dries that made the Conservatives has been crumbling.

What precisely would become of the Conservatives after 14 years of immigration and taxation lies has been, until now an open question. On one hand what has been the default party of government for the UK for centuries could have regrouped and bounced back, possibly with a short-term second-fiddle role to Farage’s Reform. Otherwise, it seemed possible it would split, with the wets going to their natural home the Liberal Democrats, or else wearing the skin-suit of the Tory party as a much-reduced rump, with the dries — who never had the same grip on the party machinery — destined to break away to form a new faction or go to Reform.

With the departure of Jenrick — very much the king of the Tory sovereigntists until today — that question now seems all but decided.

breitbart

NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo discusses the day’s top stories.

Portugal’s presidential election campaign is entering its decisive phase with a development that, until a few years ago, would have seemed unthinkable: sovereigntist Chega is leading the opinion polls.

The party led by André Ventura has consolidated its position as the strongest force in the first round, reflecting a profound shift in the Portuguese electorate and the gradual erosion of the political balance that has defined the country since the Carnation Revolution.

Portugal will hold presidential elections this Sunday to choose the successor to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is leaving the Belém Palace after ten years in office. According to the latest poll by the Centre for Opinion Studies and Surveys (CESOP) of the Portuguese Catholic University, Ventura would secure around 24% of the vote in the first round, followed closely by former socialist minister and party leader António José Seguro with 23%.

Chega’s rise represents a break with one of Portugal’s longstanding political peculiarities in the European context. For decades, the country remained largely untouched by the surge of populist or identity-based movements that gained ground in other EU member states. After 1974, Portugal’s political system was structured around a relatively stable alternation between the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), underpinned by an implicit consensus on the boundaries of political debate.

That consensus is now beginning to fracture. Chega’s emergence as the leading force in voting intentions reflects a loss of confidence in the traditional parties and a growing demand for clear answers on issues that for years were sidelined or addressed only superficially.

Immigration has become one of the central issues of the campaign. Portugal, historically a country of emigrants, has in recent years experienced a sustained increase in migration flows that is beginning to affect the labour market, housing and public services. Chega has placed this issue at the heart of the political debate with a firm, though more restrained, message than in previous phases, enabling it to broaden its electoral base.

The party has succeeded in attracting voters from both the traditional left and right: precarious workers, urban middle classes hit by rising housing costs, and younger voters who perceive a growing disconnect between political elites and everyday realities. This cross-cutting support largely explains the party’s steady growth.

Chega’s political normalization has been reinforced by its role in parliament. Recently, the Portuguese legislature approved a reform introducing migration restrictions promoted by the party and backed by the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro—an outcome that would have been unthinkable just one legislative term ago.

A fragmented race towards a second round

The CESOP poll places MEP João Cotrim Figueiredo, backed by the Liberal Initiative, in third position with 19%. He is followed by retired admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo and former minister Luís Marques Mendes, both polling at 14%.

This fragmentation of the vote makes a second round on February 8th highly likely, with Ventura and Seguro emerging as the frontrunners. While several analysts argue that the Chega leader would face greater difficulties in a runoff, his first-round lead has already reshaped campaign strategies and intensified appeals for so-called “tactical voting.”

Chega’s advance does not occur in a vacuum. The party is part of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, aligning itself with other Eurosceptic forces that challenge Brussels’ centralizing drift. In this sense, Portugal is no longer an exception in southern Europe, but part of a broader trend of political realignment within the Union.

Within EU circles, there is growing unease at the prospect that Portugal’s next president could adopt a more critical stance toward certain European policies, particularly on migration and national sovereignty.

Even if André Ventura ultimately fails to prevail in a second round, the outcome of these presidential elections will mark a turning point. Chega will have consolidated its cultural dominance in key debates and forced both PS and PSD to reposition themselves. A victory, by contrast, would open a period of institutional tension with the government and the Constitutional Court, while also redefining Portugal’s role within the European framework.

europeanconservative

The diversity and inclusion lead for a secondary school that called off a visit from a Jewish MP suggested Hamas terrorists acted as “heroes” in the October 7 attacks.

Labour MP Damien Egan was due to attend Brunel Academy in his Bristol North East constituency in September, but the visit was cancelled following pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners and union members.

The activists cited what they termed “safeguarding concerns” and highlighted the MP’s role as vice chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer said the case was “very serious, very concerning”.

He added that all MPs “should be able to visit anywhere in their constituency, schools or other places, without fear of antisemitism”.

It has now been revealed that Saima Akhtar, the diversity and inclusion leader at Cabot Learning Federation (CLF) which runs the school, showed praise for Hamas over the attacks on October 7, 2023.

Hamas terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others in an assault on Israel in the atrocious attacks.

According to The Times, the day after the attacks, Ms Akhtar wrote a post to Facebook which said “Palestine is fighting back” against an “apartheid” carried out by Israel, labelling it a “a war against their oppressors”.

“This is an oppressed people standing up and fighting back,” she added.

“Just imagine if this was Ukraine attacking Russia? Heroes fighting for justice and their right to exist. Palestinians are no different. #FreePalestine.”

In her LinkedIn bio, Ms Akhtar says her approach to her work is “intersectional, trauma-informed and unapologetically anti-racist, with a strong commitment to trans rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and global solidarity, including support for Palestinian human rights”.

A spokesman for the CLF said: “We were made aware of these posts yesterday evening and immediately launched a full and comprehensive investigation.

“The promotion of inclusion and rejection of discrimination are enshrined in the CLF’s core values, and all staff are expected to embody these values in their behaviour, both inside and outside of school.

“We have also commissioned an external review of our existing training and development for staff, to further raise awareness of discrimination of any kind, including race, religion or ethnic origin.”

The spokesman added that the federation takes “responsibilities to educate young people about British values extremely seriously”, referencing Mr Egan’s scheduled visit to the school.

“While we took the decision to postpone the visit due to concerns about student safety and the disruption to their education from the planned protest, a date for the rescheduled visit had already been confirmed by Mr Egan’s office,” the spokesman said.

“This was long before any of the most recent concerns were raised.”

gbnews

A 29-year-old Eritrean man carried out a knife attack inside an electronics store at a retail park in Ulm on Wednesday afternoon, seriously injuring two young employees before being shot by police during his arrest.

According to police and prosecutors, the attack occurred around 12:30 p.m. when the suspect entered the MediaMarkt store on Blaubeurer Straße, pulled out a knife, and stabbed two employees, aged 22 and 25.

According to Bild, the older victim suffered life-threatening injuries and remains in critical condition in intensive care. The 22-year-old sustained minor injuries.

Employees reportedly shouted, “Close the doors! Close the doors!” when they realized what was unfolding.

JUST IN: 🇩🇪 A suspected knife attacker at the German electronic chain "MediaMarkt" in the city of Ulm has been identified as a 29-year-old Eritrean migrant.

He is accused of stabbing a 25-year-old employee, who is facing life-threatening injuries in the ICU, while a 22-year-old… pic.twitter.com/wI0xKLsVda

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 14, 2026

After the stabbing, the attacker fled the store in the direction of a nearby fast-food restaurant. Police officers located him a short time later in the immediate vicinity. In a joint statement, the Ulm Public Prosecutor’s Office, police, and the State Criminal Police Office said, “When the 29-year-old threatened the police officers with the knife and refused to drop the weapon, despite being asked to do so, the officers fired several shots at him.”

The suspect was seriously injured by police gunfire and taken to the hospital under police escort, where he is also being treated in intensive care. His condition is described as critical.

Investigators said the man is an Eritrean national with a history of criminal offenses, including violent crimes. He had been serving a prison sentence until December and was known to authorities.

Neu-Ulmer Zeitung later cited a police statement that read, “Two people were injured with a knife by a man in a shop at the retail park on Blaubeurer Straße. The perpetrator then left the shop and was arrested a short time later by arriving police officers. Firearms were discharged during the arrest. The two injured people in the shop and the perpetrator were all taken to the hospital for further treatment. The motive is still unknown.”

Eight members of the emergency chaplaincy team were deployed to support customers and staff while police officers secured evidence and conducted interviews in neighboring stores.

The State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Württemberg will lead the investigation into the police use of firearms in coordination with the Ulm Public Prosecutor’s Office, while Ulm Police Headquarters is handling the investigation into the knife attack itself.

The investigation is ongoing.

rmx.news

Iran closed its airspace early Thursday morning to all flights, except for international flights to and from the country that received special authorization.

Meanwhile, reports from Iraq stated that fighter jets were heard in the Kirkuk area in the center of the country.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump spoke at the White House and commented on the situation in Iran.

“We have been notified pretty strongly that the killing in Iran is stopping, and there’s no plan for executions or an execution,” Trump said.

He noted that “I’ve been told that in good authority. We’ll find out about it, I’m sure. If it happens, we’ll be very upset.”

The President attributed the information to “very important sources on the other side and they said that the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place. There were supposed to be a lot of executions today, but the executions won’t take place. We’re going to find out. I’ll find out after this, you’ll find out.”

Sky News reported that the planned execution of protester Erfan Soltani was not carried out.

Meanwhile, Israeli officials estimate that US action in Iran will be carried out in the coming days, and that such an attack would inevitably lead to changes in Home Front Command guidelines for the public.

At the same time, Gulf states are preparing to defend themselves in the event of a US strike against the regime in Tehran.

Kan 11 News reported that according to Israeli assessments, the American operation may combine cyber measures with a military strike.

Israel’s defense establishment has raised its alert level in anticipation of possible repercussions from such an attack. On Tuesday, a cabinet meeting was even interrupted midway due to President Trump’s speech.

Israel has made clear to the United States that it expects to receive at least several hours’ notice before any strike is carried out.

Israel News | Israel National News

The Catholic Church has had the great misfortune of having elected two modern popes who identify with Latin America.

Francis, who was Italian, identified as Argentinean and embraced Latin American liberation theology, a Marxist doctrine posing as concern for the poor and the “oppressed” while circumventing the Church’s primary mission concerning the salvation of souls.

Because cantankerous Francis liked to make a show of his humility, he opted to forgo living at the official papal residence, the Apostolic Palace, instead taking a so-called modest apartment in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a building where cardinals stay during papal conclaves. This move enhanced the myth of the man’s humility although this fact was recently revealed to be a lie.

Catholic podcaster John-Henry Westen’s interview with Rome professor, theologian, and mariologist  Dr. William Anthony Thomas, sheds light on Francis’s decision to not live in the Apostolic Palace as having nothing to do with humility but everything to do with his hatred of former popes and long-standing papal traditions.

Ironically, Francis’s “humble” apartment, according to Thomas, contained an entire floor of the building – larger space than the Apostolic Palace – and his move there prevented anyone else from living in the building. Thomas also recounts that by the end of his papacy, some $26 million dollars had been spent on this special living arrangement.

The theologian also reported that the only publication Francis read on a daily basis was a Communist publication – this alone is pretty shocking – and that his vision and obsession of a new Synodal Church came from Justin Welby, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 2013 to 2025. The Synodal Church idea, says Thomas, was concocted when Welby met Francis for a special meeting.

That meeting caused a bit of a scandal among real Catholics when Francis knelt before the Anglican archbishop and asked for his blessing, in effect canceling out what the Catholic Church has always believed: that Anglican religious orders are invalid.

In other words, Francis received a fake blessing from a fake archbishop as the two of them came up with an even bigger fake idea: a Synodal Church based on conversations, listening, and feelings rather than the old biblical notions of sin and personal accountability.

When Francis was Cardinal-Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he waged a holy war against many forms of traditional Catholicism, while simultaneously posing as a peoples’ bishop who rode the subway to work every day. In Latin American liberation theology, the concept of the worker-priest meant less emphasis on being a priest and more emphasis on working to improve the conditions of the impoverished; one thinks of Peace Corp volunteers although many worker-priests ditched priestly cassocks for worker costumes and a cocked beret reminiscent of Che Guevara.

Fast forward to Leo XIV, the first American pope, educated at a minimalist Catholic university, Villanova, noted for its obsession with sports teams and weekend frat parties. Leo, once known as Robert Prevost, had a long tenure as a missionary in Peru and, from what I can see, returned to the United States a changed man.

When Catholic clerics spend any time in Latin America they almost always come back radicalized to some degree. This is no reflection on the people of Latin America. What it reflects is the ideological component of the Church’s mission there, when fighting poverty and for social justice replaces the greater message of the gospel.

This perversion eats away at the ‘Catholic’ soul and gives birth to what one might call the quasi-Catholic priest with a soft spot for communism.

Leo is definitely a quasi-Catholic of the new Synodal Way. This is the new Catholic Church slowly being built from the Anglican template promulgated by Justin Welby. The Synodal Catholic Church is not the Catholic Church of history and apostolic times, but a new worm-filled creation, divorced from tradition and the Church Fathers. It is a new religion based on feelings and sentimentality where the concept of personal sin is minimized or ignored.

Robert Prevost was brought to power by a cabal of progressive cardinals bent on carrying forth the heresies of Pope Francis. Immediately after his election, Prevost-as-Leo declared he was going to continue the mission and reforms of Francis, or the new Synodal Way: Papa Bergoglio would be his lord and master, not Jesus Christ. Leo would be a copycat pope with no vision of his own.

Would Bergoglio approve? What would Bergoglio do?

Bergoglio idolatry has come to define Pope Leo XIV’s papacy and most Vatican bureaucrats.

Note, also, that the cardinals who elected Leo came under scrutiny recently when Msgr. Marco Agostini, who for more than 16 years served as the Vatican’s pontifical master of ceremonies, described them in an off-moment before a hot mike: “They are faggots, all together.”

The contested hot mike moment was captured by a progressive, rainbow-bracelet wearing Catholic blogger who then published the comment on the Italian blog, Silere Non Possum. The publication resulted in the removal of Msgr. Agostini, who served under three popes.

It was Pope Francis who set a precedent regarding the use of that slur. He said the word while commenting that there were too many liberal priests in the Church and then apologized. While he was “forgiven,” Agostini was fired. The so-called Holy See has not commented on Agostini’s removal; it’s also doubtful that the weak Villanova grad on the Throne of Peter will say anything about it, either.

The disposal of Agostini is a valuable lesson when it comes to knowing who’s in charge at the Vatican.

It’s been estimated that up to 70% of Catholic bishops and cardinals are gay, and while gay may not be a “bad” thing when it comes to the general population, when it’s a building block of the Catholic hierarchy it becomes politicized and merges with a progressive agenda that has only one aim: the creation of the new Synodal Catholic Church, the fake Catholic Church that many Catholic mystics of old predicted would eclipse the historic Church.

While the dismissal of Msgr. Agostini didn’t generate a lot of publicity – it was a main feature on the Catholic podcast, Return to Tradition – Pope Leo’s comments on President Trump’s capture of Venezuelan dictator Maduro and his wife went viral.

They went viral because the media loves him when he challenges President Trump. In many ways, Leo the mega-mouth won’t shut up. He gives too many off-the-cuff interviews. His lips start moving automatically whenever a microphone is thrust in his face.

About that capture, Leo said:

“The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration and lead us to overcome violence and to undertake paths of justice and peace, safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each person and of all, and working to build together a serene future of collaboration, stability, and concord, with special attention to the poorest…”

‘Overcome violence’ can be read as a reference to Trump for taking Maduro out by force; ‘safeguarding the country’s sovereignty,’ can be read as giving respect to a dictator not democratically elected; ‘ensuring the rule of law enshrined in the Constitution,’ makes no mention of the Monroe Doctrine, “once ranked with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in the pantheon of American reverence,” according to historian, Gaddis Smith.

Notice Leo’s choice of empty words like “collaboration, stability, and concord,” which would never apply to a dictatorship. Then there’s the big Francis-Leo-worker-priest obsession: “…With special attention to the poorest who suffer….”

Yet not one word on how President Trump saved Venezuela and gave it a second chance to become the great democracy it once was.

frontpagemag

As Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial gets underway, Jordan Bardella, president of the Rassemblement National (RN), is also the target of a legal offensive. An anti-corruption association is accusing him of “favouritism and embezzlement of public funds.” The group reported Bardella to the authorities at the end of last year, and an investigation was launched. The alleged offences fuel strong suspicions of judicial harassment of a politician whose popularity is growing.

In December 2025, the association called AC Corruption filed a complaint against Jordan Bardella with the national financial prosecutor’s office concerning media training followed by the current president of the RN, based on information provided by the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, published at the end of November 2025, which claimed that he had undergone training provided by a media specialist, Pascal Humeau, during the 2022 presidential campaign. The training was financed by the European Parliament.

Pascal Humeau was reportedly hired to train RN elected representatives in the European Parliament, but the newspaper states that from September 2021 onwards, Bardella benefited from his services in preparation for the presidential campaign and not in connection with his European mandate.

On Monday, January 12th, the day before the start of Marine Le Pen’s appeal trial in the European parliamentary assistants case, the new national financial prosecutor, Pascal Prache, who had just taken up his post, confirmed that there was an investigation , “in conjunction with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.”

The facts are anecdotal in comparison to what the RN is accused of in the parliamentary assistants case, but the timing of the announcement of the investigation to coincide with the beginning of Le Pen’s trial gives the impression of a political targeting of France’s leading opposition party. The AC Corruption association makes little secret of its political motivation in this case. Its lawyer accuses the RN of “shamelessly plundering public funds to extend its hegemony.”

During his New Year’s address to the press Jordan Bardella announced that, before Christmas, he had filed a complaint for slander against the association, which he accuses of being “partisan, politicised and leftist” and of inventing battles in the name of “false ethics.” He claims to have absolutely nothing to reproach himself for in this case. The service linking the RN to Pascal Humeau is “a completely standard training service, in full compliance with the rules of the European Parliament,” and he points out that it was temporarily suspended during the presidential campaign to avoid any ambiguity. Bardella says he is confident, given the extreme caution shown by the prosecutor in this case still in its infancy.

The offensive against the young RN president, Marine Le Pen’s potential successor if she is prevented from running in the 2027 presidential election, is likely to prove counterproductive, given his popularity and the growing perception that the leading French opposition party is being deliberately targeted.

🔔⚖️ Procès Marine Le Pen, Bardella sous enquête du PNF : la justice s’immisce déjà dans l’élection présidentielle de 2027

🚨⚖️ « La messe est dite pour Marine Le Pen. Elle sera condamnée à nouveau, déclarée inéligible et ne sera pas candidate en 2027.
Si, par miracle, Marine Le… pic.twitter.com/ueX7Htrez1— Tocsin (@Tocsin_Media) January 13, 2026

europeanconservative

Dr. Tim Aker, former Member of the European Party for UKIP and the Brexit Party, was one of four guest speakers at the New Culture Forum’s 2025 Smith Lecture, which was based around the theme: “There’ll Always be an England? England: 1066 – 2066? “