“At this podium yesterday, while I was not present in the room, one of the speakers allowed himself, as a provocation, to make a gesture referring to Nazi ideology,” Bardella said in in a statement Friday.
“Therefore, I have taken the immediate decision to cancel my scheduled speaking engagement at the event this afternoon,” Bardella said.
Bardella was likely referring to Bannon’s speech, which ended with chants of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and in which he raised his right arm straight up in the air.
The gesture appeared to resemble the salute made infamous by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Europe’s fascists in the early 20th century, but Bannon denied it was a “Nazi salute” and said he was waving to the crowd — just as he had done in previous speeches.
“If he cancelled [the speech] over what the mainstream media said about the speech, he didn’t listen to the speech. If that’s true, he’s unworthy to lead France. He’s a boy, not a man,” Bannon told the French newspaper Le Point.
“If he took what the mainstream media said … I did that exact same wave at Front National seven years ago when I gave a speech to them, okay?” Bannon said. “If he’s that worried about it, and wets himself like a little child, then he is unworthy, and will never lead France.”
