WASHINGTON: Accusations of an apparent Nazi salute by American conservative firebrand and Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon at a Washington convention led a French far-right leader to withdraw from the event on Friday.
Jordan Bardella, president of France’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party canceled a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over a “gesture alluding to Nazi ideology.”
Bannon, a former adviser to US President Donald Trump, briefly held out a stiffened arm with his palm down at the conference on Thursday night as he called on the audience to “fight, fight, fight.”
He reacted with fury to Bardella’s withdrawal, calling the French politician “a little boy, not a man” and “unworthy of leading France,” in a video interview with French weekly Le Point.
He insisted his gesture was a “wave” that he has frequently used at conferences.
The incident came a month after Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a key Trump ally, also made a hand gesture that drew comparisons to a Nazi salute.
Musk dismissed criticism at the time, saying on his X platform: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
Bardella was not present when Bannon — one of the masterminds of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — made the gesture.
“I had been invited... to make a speech on the links between the United States and France, as well as the recent electoral dynamic of patriot parties in Europe,” Bardella said in a statement.
“Yesterday, while I was not present in the room, one of the speakers out of provocation allowed himself a gesture alluding to Nazi ideology. I therefore took the immediate decision to cancel my speech that had been scheduled this afternoon,” he said.
An adviser to Bardella confirmed to AFP that he was speaking about Bannon.
Bardella, 29, took over from Marine Le Pen as RN leader in 2022, but the two remain close allies.
The RN has in the past been accused of anti-Semitism and Le Pen has worked to make the party more acceptable.
It won a record number of parliament seats in an election last year and Le Pen is expected to be a strong contender in a 2027 presidential election.
Bannon has supported European nationalist parties such as the RN but also frequently courted controversy.
He spent nearly four months in federal prison last year for contempt of a Congress inquiry into the 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
“He’s unworthy,” Bannon said of Bardella.
“If he canceled it over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn’t listen to the speech. If that’s true he’s unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy not a man,” Bannon said in the interview released by Le Point.
Bannon said he did “that exact same wave” at a conference of Le Pen’s party in France seven years ago.
“If he’s that worried about it and wets himself like a little child then he’s unworthy and will never lead France.”
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish activist group, did not mention Bannon’s gesture but said in a post that Bannon has a “long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate, threatening violence, and empowering extremists.”
It added: “We are not surprised, but are concerned about the normalization of this behavior.”
