France far-right leader Bardella cancels US speech after ex-Trump aide makes 'Nazi gesture'

France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella said Friday he had cancelled his speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a "gesture alluding to Nazi ideology" by conservative firebrand Steve Bannon.

The president of France's National Rally party (RN), who is in the US capital, said he was not present when Bannon – one of the masterminds behind Trump's 2016 presidential campaign – made a gesture that has been described as a Nazi salute on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

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"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.

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Bardella became RN leader in 2022, taking over from Marine Le Pen. He is also a member of European Parliament.

But it is Le Pen, who was runner-up in the last two French presidential elections and has remained party leader in parliament, who is expected to make the next presidential run in 2027.

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

The RN's efforts to rebrand itself as a respectable political party with a hardline stance on immigration have not been entirely successful. A number of the party's candidates were forced to withdraw in the lead-up to last year's snap legislative elections after having been caught out posting racist and anti-Semitic comments on social media and, in one infamous case, wearing a Nazi cap emblazoned with a swastika. 

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.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)