French far right leader cancels CPAC’s speech by Steve Bannon’s “Nazi”

Jordan Barella, from the national rally, cancels speech while the Anti -Difama League says it is worried, but “not surprise”

French far-right French leader Jordan Bardella canceled a speech on Friday morning at the US conservative political action conference in National Harbor, Maryland, after former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon, grew style Fascist hours before.

Bannon, who helped Trump conquer power in 2016 and is now a popular right-wing podcast host, ended his CPAC speech on Thursday with an extended arm, fingers and palm down-a sign that echoed Nazi greeting and a controversial gesture made by Elon Musk technology billionaire in the second inauguration of the US President in January.

Bardella, from the extreme right party Rally Rally in France, withdrew from CPAC citing Bannon’s allusion to the “Nazi ideology.”

The greeting during Bannon’s speech pulled applause from the public present at the US meeting.

Bardella, who was in Washington before her appearance and said she intended to talk about the US and France relationships, issued a statement saying, “Yesterday, while I was not present in the room, one of the lecturers, by provocation, allowed them if a gesture alluding to Nazi ideology. So I made the immediate decision to cancel my speech that had been scheduled for this afternoon. ”

The National Rally was defeated in the early elections of France last summer for a leftist alliance.

Bannon shook the CPAC crowd on Thursday night, where he spoke shortly after Musk, the man who eclipsed him in the Trump circle and with whom Bannon has no good relations.

“The only way for them to win is to retreat, and we won’t back down, we won’t surrender, we won’t give up – let’s fight, fight, fight,” Bannon told the opponents, echoing Trump’s exhortation to supporters after the attempt to attempt murder against him.

Bannon then extended his right arm at an angle with his palm pointing down. Nazi greeting is perhaps more familiar, especially from Adolf Hitler’s historical filming, with his arm pointing forward – but the fascist tone of Bannon and Musk’s signals have been unmistakable.

The Anti -Difama League, which campaigns against anti -Semitism, defines the Nazi greeting as “lifting the right arm with the palm down.”

“Steve Bannon’s long and disturbing story of inciting anti -Semitism and hatred, threatening with violence and empowering extremists is well known and well documented by ADL and others,” wrote the X -in -chief alloy in response, adding: “We are not surprised but we are concerned about the normalization of this behavior. ”

Bannon, speaking to a French journalist of Le Point magazine on Friday, said the gesture was not a Nazi greeting, but “a nod like me was all the time.”

“I do this at the end of all my speeches to thank the crowd,” said Bannon.

However, in the video, when he stretches his arm in a brief gesture, then sink with a smile, to the applause of the audience, and says “Amen”, seems clearly different from the end of his speech, when Bannon walked on the grazing stage The public, first stretching his right arm, then the left, in a looser gesture that looked much more like a conventional recognition of a crowd after a speech.

Online, some far right users have suggested that Bannon purposely made the gesture to “shoot” liberals and the media. Others distanced themselves.

Nick Fuentes, an extreme right influencer and Trump ally who uses his platform to share his anti -Semitic visions, said in a live broadcast that Bannon’s greeting was “getting a little uncomfortable even for me.”

Bannon’s gesture, like Musk’s, was characterized by some as a “Roman greeting” – although some historians argue that this is a distinction without difference. Some right -wing supporters argued, without evidence, that Roman greeting originated in ancient Rome. Historians found, instead, that she was adopted by Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the 1920s, and later by the Hitler Nazi Party in Germany.

However, ADL concluded that, in the group’s opinion, Musk had “made a strange gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi greeting.”

Bannon’s speech showed the evolution of CPAC from a traditional conservative conference to a totally Trump -centered rally. Bannon also talked about the next election in 2028, provoking applause of “We want Trump” and saying himself: “We want Trump in 28”.

The statement echoed those of Trump himself, who on Wednesday asked a crowd if he should compete again, was received with “another four years,” calls, and called a “king” in a publication on social networks. US presidents are limited to two terms.

Meanwhile, Musk was a chainsaw on Thursday at CPAC, rejoicing with the cutting of federal jobs that he is overseeing in various departments, facing legal contests and protests. He called it “the chainsaw to bureaucracy.”

He was handed to him on stage by the right -wing president of Argentina, Javier Milei.

Originally published by The Guardian on 21/02/2025