Le Pen has so far backed Bardella, offering her protégé an emphatic public defense. “The system will do anything — including the most disgusting things — to try to hinder this momentum,” she said, sitting next to him as they addressed reporters in the National Assembly Tuesday.

But Bardella’s difficulties inside the party predate the allegations — and the latest controversy now threatens to amplify them. His standing inside the National Rally had already grown precarious, with Le Pen drawing relatives and longtime loyalists closer as she prepares for next year’s presidential election.

Le Pen’s 27-year-old niece Nolwenn Olivier, Bardella’s former girlfriend, has been promoted to communications director. Another niece, Marion Maréchal, who broke with the party during the last presidential election, is back in favor and expected to play a frontline role. And Le Pen’s own brother-in-law, Philippe Olivier, an unofficial chief adviser, is taking part in many top campaign meetings.

At the same time, several figures associated with Bardella have been sidelined, passed over for promotion, or even ejected from the party. Once touted as a possible replacement for Le Pen, Bardella was not invited to speak at a recent National Rally parliamentary gathering, despite being party president and Le Pen’s presumptive choice for prime minister. 

There is no indication Le Pen is preparing to cast Bardella aside. And yet, she has shown before that protecting the party can trump even the closest personal ties. In 2015, amid another controversy over antisemitic remarks, she backed the expulsion of the party’s founder — her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

That history leaves Bardella with little room for error as Marine Le Pen prepares for her fourth attempt at the presidency — and increasingly surrounds herself with people whose loyalty she has little reason to question.