The chairman of the "National Rally" — France's leading far-right party — Jordan Bardella canceled his attendance at a conference in Washington after one of the speakers made a gesture resembling a Nazi salute.
This refers to former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon. "We will not retreat, we will not surrender, we will not leave. Fight, fight, fight," he told the audience, then extended his right arm forward to applause.
Some compared the gesture to a Nazi salute, while others recalled Elon Musk's gesture on Donald Trump's inauguration day.
The Conservative Political Action Conference is an event dedicated to the ties between the United States and France, as well as the rising "patriotic parties" in Europe. Jordan Bardella was also scheduled to speak at the event.
"Yesterday on the podium, when I was not in the hall, one of the speakers provocatively made a gesture referencing Nazi ideology," he explained his withdrawal from the conference.
Leaders of the "National Rally," Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, had previously welcomed the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to power.
In early February, Marine Le Pen spoke at the "Make Europe Great Again" conference organized by the Spanish far-right party Vox, where she stated that a wave of Trump-style politics is sweeping across the continent.
"The election of Donald Trump cannot be analyzed merely as a simple change of power in a democratic country. And not just as a patriotic awakening of a nation justly rejecting the forces of decline. We are facing a truly global turning point," she said.
Marine Le Pen also stated that the parties gathered at the Spanish conference are the only ones in Europe capable of communicating normally with the administration of the American president.
The Conservative Political Action Conference has been held in Washington since the 1970s. The event has always been an important platform for the Republican Party. It is now closely associated with Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement.