Marine Le Pen claims to have been tricked into performing a white-power salute as the French right-wing politician bids to get picture of it taken offline ahead of Euro elections
- The French politician was pictured making a circle with her thumb and finger
- She claimed she had ‘never heard’ of the gesture’s link to white supremacists
- Ms Le Pen posed with an Estonian who has been accused of Holocaust denial
French right-wing firebrand Marine Le Pen has claimed she was tricked into making a white power symbol.
Ms Le Pen, the runner-up in France’s 2017 presidential race, was pictured making a circle with her left thumb and index finger in a sign which has been used by white supremacists.
She posed for the picture in Tallinn with Ruuben Kaalep, an Estonian who has been accused of Holocaust denial.
The French politician demanded that the picture be taken down from Facebook after claiming she had ‘never heard’ of the gesture’s link to the far right.
French right-wing firebrand Marine Le Pen has claimed she was tricked into making a white power symbol with Estonian Ruuben Kaalep (above)
Brenton Tarrant, an Australian who is custody in New Zealand charged with the murder of 51 people during attacks on two Christchurch mosques in March, made the sign during a court appearance.
Faced with accusations that the White Power sign was a ‘Nazi dog whistle’, Ms Le Pen admitted she had made it at Mr Kaalep’s request but thought it meant ‘OK’.
Ms Le Pen said on Wednesday: ‘I was later told that it may have an alternative meaning.
‘As soon as I became aware of that, I immediately asked that the photo be removed from the Facebook account.
‘I’ve never heard of the second meaning of this trivial gesture.’
Mr Kaalep, 26, is the head of Blue Awakening, EKRE’s youth wing, and has been accused of questioning the veracity of the Nazi Holocaust.
He is also said to have links with National Action, the highly secretive British neo-Nazi organisation recognised in Britain as a terrorist group.
Ms Le Pen’s party, now known as the National Rally, is tipped to perform strongly in this month’s European Parliament elections amid widespread anger at President Emmanuel Macron.
Ms Le Pen came second in the 2017 French presidential election, losing to Emmanuel Macron (she is seen during a TV debate that year)
She has tried to steer the party away from the racist and anti-Semitic connotations it had under her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
The party severed ties with Mr Le Pen senior, now 89, last year.
His daughter is trying to build a right-wing coalition in the European Parliament with parties across Europe.
Polls in France currently show the National Rally running neck and neck with Mr Macron’s LREM party before the May 23 poll.
Ms Le Pen reached the final round of the 2017 presidential election after polling ahead of the traditional socialist and conservative parties in the first round.
However she lost the run-off vote to Emmanuel Macron, whose party also swept to victory in parliamentary elections that year.
Her father Jean-Marie shocked France by reaching the run-off in 2002.
He was heavily beaten by then-President Jacques Chirac as voters rallied to keep Mr Le Pen out.