Go home! So said European Parliament President Antonio Tajani last week to alt-right strategist and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon.
“When a gentleman like Steve Bannon arrives, to tell us what we must do to destroy Europe, then I say; ‘dear Mr Bannon go home, if you want to be a tourist, be a tourist, it’s better for you to keep quiet’.”
As reported by the Italian news agency ANSA, the secretary-general of the European People’s Party caucus, Antonio Lopez Isturiz, had told the conference organised by Tajani in Fiuggi on September 21 that meetings between Bannon and far-right League leader Matteo Salvini are “extremely serious”.
“Steve Bannon is a dangerous extremist, who even Trump had to get rid of because of how unpresentable he was. I read that he is meeting with Matteo Salvini: it is extremely serious news”, said Lopez Isturiz.
“I find unacceptable that this disgraced ideologue is thinking of destroying the European project: we are the founders of a united Europe and we will never accept this cheap nationalism”.
In a separate report, FRANCE 24 online reported that Bannon has focused on touting plans for a Brussels-based foundation called “The Movement” and met leading anti-immigration politicians including Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
“After the November [US mid-term] elections, when President Trump defeats the cultural Marxist Democratic parties, and he is not impeached, I will be spending 80% of my time in Europe in preparation for the European Parliamentary elections,” Bannon said.
Bannon’s increased visibility in Europe comes after he was pushed out of the White House and departed the right-wing Breitbart media empire, condemned by some commentators as spreading racist and misogynist views.
