France’s Bardella cancels CPAC speech after Steve Bannon’s ‘Nazi’ gesture

France’s far-right leader Jordan Bardella has said he cancelled a planned speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a “gesture alluding to Nazi ideology” by a speaker, an apparent reference to the conservative firebrand Steve Bannon.

The president of the National Rally (RN) party said he was not present when Bannon – one of the masterminds behind US President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign – made an apparent fascist-style gesture on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“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,” Bardella said in a statement on Friday.

As his CPAC speech drew to a close, Bannon briefly held out a stiff arm as he suggested Trump could pursue a constitutionally prohibited third term, calling on the audience to “fight, fight, fight”.

Le Pen has remained party leader in parliament. She has been the runner-up in the last two French presidential elections and is expected to make the next presidential run in 2027.

Le Pen has worked hard to render the party her father Jean-Marie co-founded more palatable to voters since she took over from him in 2011. This included purging members accused of anti-Semitism and appointing the telegenic Bardella to expand its voter base.

The RN won a record number of seats in parliament in snap polls last year after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the lower chamber when Le Pen’s party topped the poll in European elections.

At a European far-right meeting in Madrid earlier this month, Le Pen adopted the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”, in a nod to Trump’s rallying cry “Make America Great Again”, and hailed Trump’s “tornado” in the US as showing the way forward for the European Union.