Steve Bannon denied that his gesture was a Nazi salute and described it as a ‘wave’.

France’s far-right leader Jordan Bardella has said he cancelled a planned speech at a right-wing meeting in Washington after a “gesture alluding to Nazi ideology” by a speaker, an apparent reference to the conservative firebrand Steve Bannon.

The president of the National Rally (RN) party said he was not present when Bannon – one of the masterminds behind US President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign – made an apparent fascist-style gesture on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

“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,” Bardella said in a statement on Friday.

As his CPAC speech drew to a close, Bannon briefly held out a stiff arm as he suggested Trump could pursue a constitutionally prohibited third term, calling on the audience to “fight, fight, fight”.

Bannon on Friday denied that he had made a fascist salute and told a French journalist that it was a “wave to the crowd”.

Speaking to a journalist from Le Point, Bannon said Bardella was a “wimp” if he cancelled his appearance over the gesture.

“If he’s that worried about it … then he is unworthy and will never lead France,” Bannon said.

Bannon’s gesture resembled one by tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk last month that was widely compared to a Nazi salute.

The former Trump strategist and right-wing media executive served a four-month sentence last year for defying a Congressional subpoena to testify about the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol.

Bardella, 29, became RN leader in 2022 taking over from Marine Le Pen, and leads the Patriots group in the European Parliament.

Le Pen has remained party leader in parliament. She has been the runner-up in the last two French presidential elections and is expected to make the next presidential run in 2027.

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

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.

At a European far-right meeting in Madrid earlier this month, Le Pen adopted the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”, in a nod to Trump’s rallying cry “Make America Great Again”, and hailed Trump’s “tornado” in the US as showing the way forward for the European Union.

Bardella in January posed a limit to his party’s support for Trump’s ideas. “Liking Donald Trump’s patriotism does not mean being the vassal of the United States,” he said.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies