Let’s not allow Steve Bannon and ‘conservatives’ to legitimize extremism in Europe (opinion)

Steve Bannon, the former adviser to US President Donald Trump, recently won a legal battle with Italy’s culture ministry to set up a far-right Catholic political academy, a “school of gladiators” in his words, in an 800-year old monastery. Although the Italian ministry said it would appeal the decision, for now the academy is moving ahead. Benjamin Harnwell, founder of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which will run this nationalist academy, suggested in a recent interview that their intention is to shape the worldview of future populist leaders.

This Academy for the Judeo-Christian West, which will provide courses on politics, philosophy and economics (initially online and with US-based teachers), represents an additional far-right challenge to liberal and progressive values. The idea is to influence conservative thinking in the church and to counter Pope Francis’ pro-migrant — as well as what some have deemed a “liberal”—approach, as Bannon told NBC. But Bannon’s aim, it seems, is mainly to legitimize nationalism and right-leaning xenophobia, bolstering them with a radical, far-right philosophy.

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