A FAR-RIGHT FRENCH leader has cancelled his appearance at a conservative conference in the United States after a former Trump aide, Steve Bannon, made a gesture described as a nazi salute.

Jordan Bardella, the leader of the National Rally party, was due to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington but cancelled after he claimed speakers made gestures “alluding to Nazi ideology”.

It comes after Bannon, a conservative, American political commentator and former staffer of President Donald Trump, raised his arms in a gesture that resembled a nazi salute following his speech at the event yesterday evening.

He briefly held out a stiff arm at the conference as he called on the audience to “fight, fight, fight”.

In a statement, Bardella announced he would no longer be attending the event. An advisor has confirmed to the AFP news agency that the French MEP was speaking about Steve Bannon in the statement.

Bardella, who is also the leader of the European Parliament’s far-right Patriots of Europe grouping, is currently on a media tour in the United States – sitting down to speak with reporters from conservative outlets about freedom of speech.

In a statement today, Bardella said he had been invited to CPAC to make a speech on the links between the US and France and discuss the recent political wins of far-right and conservative parties in Europe.

“Yesterday, while I was not present in the room, one of the speakers out of provocation allowed himself a gesture alluding to Nazi ideology,” he said. “I therefore took the immediate decision to cancel my speech that had been scheduled this afternoon.”

Bannon has since denied the accusation that he was making a nazi salute, claiming that he was waving at the crowd of supporters – as he has done in the past. Speaking to French media, he called Bardella a “pussy”.

“If he cancelled it over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn’t listen to the speech,” he told French US correspondent Claire Meynial. “If that’s true, he’s unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy, not a man.”

Bannon further claimed that he made the same gesture when he addressed Bardella’s party seven years ago. 

Bardella, 29, became the leader of the National Rally in 2022 after taking over from Marine Le Pen, who was a runner-up in the last two French presidential elections. She remains the party’s parliamentary leader.

Le Pen has worked to render the party her father co-founded to be more palatable to the French electorate since 2011, taking measures to expel members accused of anti-semitism and appointing Bardella in a move that attempted to expand its voter nase.

On 31 March, she faces the verdict in an embezzlement trial on charges she denies. If convicted, she could lose the chance of standing in the 2027 elections.

The party topped the poll in France following the European elections in June last year, and won a record number of seats in the National Assembly in France following the snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron following the results.

Le Pen has openly supported Trump’s return to the White House, hailing it as a blueprint for the European Union, but Bardella has posed a limit to his party’s support for the President’s ideas.

He told his party last month that admiration for Trump’s “patriotism” does not mean he is “the vassal of the United States”.

Includes reporting by AFP