Steve Bannon moves to Brussels to unite European populists
Former Trump administration chief strategist Steve Bannon has announced he is launching a foundation to help unite European far-right populists in the run-up to the may 2019 elections.
The foundation, which Bannon has named 'The Movement', aims to turn the European Parliament into an arena where eurosceptic populists will genuinely challenge traditional European parties, thus jeopardizing the European project as a whole. Bannon considers Europe as a conflictual political space, one which embodies the very essence of his ideological vision of a new political order structured by a fundamental opposition between a pro-immigration, globalist elite and a nationalist world middle class.
But should Europe really fear Bannon's move to Brussels ?
According to Vox senior reporter Zach Beauchamp, this would be giving Bannon more credit than he deserves. It must be acknowledged that Bannon has, in recent years, campaigned with several far-right parties and movements, such as the Lega Nord or the Alternative für Deutschland. However, to this day The Movement has no other known sources of funding than Bannon himself. Consequently, its staff will be limited to ten full-time members.
Steve Bannon most certainly sees himself as the greatest modern thinker of national-populism, but The Movement seems bound to be nothing more than his latest 'vanity project', as put by Beauchamp. A vanity project which is probably not unconnected with his being dismissed from both the Trump administration and Breitbart News.
Read more:
Steve Bannon's bold plan to start a populist revolution in Europe, Vox
Photo credits : Gage Skidmore / CC BY