“Let them call you racist. Wear it as a badge of honor”
by digby
“You’re part of a movement that is bigger than Italy, bigger than Poland, bigger than Hungary…”
Steve Bannon may have fallen from President Trump’s graces for now, but on Saturday, he was the darling of France’s far right movement. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist whom the president praised before he excoriated him at the beginning of January, found his nationalist, populist and “anti-globalist” message in good company once again.
“I did not come here as a teacher. I came here as an observer, and to learn,” he said through a translator from the stage in Lilles, France, sporting his infamous laid-back jacket and khaki pants.
On Saturday, Bannon received a warm welcome from the audience of French far-right leaders of the National Front, not the least of which when he told them to embrace any charges of racism and wear them “as a badge of honor.”
“Our populist nationalist movement in the United States is maybe 10 or 15 years old,” Bannon said. “We are here to learn from you.”
Bannon said he’s observed this all over the world, in places like Japan, Korea, the Middle East, the U.S., and now in Western Europe.
“History is on our side. And the biggest reason — the globalists have no answers to freedom. Let them call you racist. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativist. Wear it as a badge of honor,” Bannon said, applause erupting from the audience. “Because every day, we get stronger, and they get weaker.”
Just before the election I wrote a piece about Bannon and the European far-right in the event Trump lost. It hasn’t played out as I thought but this speech today shows that he is still part of this underlying movement. And he’s right about one thing. The movement is growing.
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