French far-right leader Jordan Bardella abruptly withdrew from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, citing concerns over a gesture made by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that he described as ‘alluding to Nazi ideology’.
French far-right leader Jordan Bardella abruptly withdrew from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, citing concerns over a gesture made by former Trump advisor Steve Bannon that he described as ‘alluding to Nazi ideology’.
The French are, understandibly, less willing to overlook Nazism than anglophones.
Then again, no one should be overlooking Nazism.
The RN (Rassemblement National, Baredella’s party) spent (at least) the last ~20 years trying to get rid of their neo-nazi reputation.
They managed to hid the old head of the party in the closet (and they are probably thankful he passed away this year and stopped undermining their effort with his racist and Holocaust denial rants).
Now they finally manage to “un-devil” themselves up, have a fresh coat of paint as a “just partially xenophobic, there are good ones”, slightly pro-putin (only when it’s not too obvious, such as financing) illiberal far right.
During last election a large part of the French citizen choose to ignore their past and votes for them, making them a strong force…
They are finally in a position where their long term goal is within reach: win the presidential (executive branch) election. They nearly did last time, they have a nice clear path for the next ones.
A shame that their US counterpart is 50 years behind. No way they’d let them the remove the camouflage in public, no matter how well he did at home.
I’d like to point out he still choose to go at the meeting though… That should mean a lot to French with three working neurons…