Steve Bannon is on a far-right mission to radicalise Europe

08/06/2018

Don’t be fooled by Bannon’s split with Trump. He’s leading a Trumpian onslaught to undermine European democracy itself

By Natalie Nougayrède
6 Jun 2018

Steve Bannon is on a mission. President Trump’s former chief strategist has visited Europe twice in the past four months, touring several capitals. He has been spreading the gospel of the “national populist revolt”, and he sees Europe as fertile ground for his global crusade. Maybe there is some truth in that. Italy’s current politics are a gift to him. But he has also been applauded by audiences in Prague, Budapest and France. Have we been paying enough attention?

It’s easy to dismiss Bannon as an isolated maverick, a man who was chucked out of the White House last August before being fired by Breitbart in January. It’s also tempting to see his activities as being mainly aimed at the Anglosphere: reaching out to US audiences and Brexiteers, rather than to the old continent. It’s even possible that he is trying to grab the attention of one man and one man only: Donald Trump – to get back into his good graces.