German politicians from across the political spectrum have criticized Steve Bannon's plans to launch his project "The Movement," which is devoted to assisting European right-wing parties win seats in the EU Parliament, in an interview with Die Welt. A member of the center-right Christian Social Union (CSU), Florian Hahn has urged that Bannon's initiative be taken seriously and said that the whole EU must oppose the "inadmissible external electoral interference."
Michael Roth, from the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), said that people need to fight Bannon's project with "good arguments [and] confidence." He added that Europe should not be afraid of "nationalist campaigns" aimed at "putting Europe on its knees." Roth expressed confidence that European values are stronger than Bannon's "hate and lies."
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Another center-right party member, Renata Alt, from the Free Democrats, slammed Bannon's initiative as "a frontal attack on the EU and European values." She added that the former Trump strategist's project is a signal to all pro-European politicians that they should pursue reforms necessary to counter "right-wing populists in these challenging times."
However, there was one party that was supportive of Bannon's goal — the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Its co-chair, Alice Weidel, said that The Movement is "exciting and ambitious," but at the same time declined Bannon's help in the party's election campaign.
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The former investor and chief strategist for US President Trump, Steve Bannon, recently revealed plans to create a foundation inspired by George Soros' Open Society Foundations, referring to the billionaire political activist as "evil, but brilliant."
He believes that with the help of The Movement, European right-wing parties could be able to capture as many as one third of the seats in the EU Parliament in the upcoming elections in May 2019.
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Bannon has already held several meetings with former and current leaders of European right-wing parties, including Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orban. He also visited Italy ahead of the parliamentary elections there to support the leader of the Lega Party, Matteo Salvini.
