Steve Bannon and the European elections: German parties worry about "The Movement"

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J is true, says Michael Roth. "We have to fight now, with good arguments, confident and true," said the SPD WORLD politician. Courage is needed, said the state minister for Europe at the Federal Foreign Office. "Europe must not be afraid of the nationalist campaigns that Mr Bannon intends to put on Europe's knees, our values ​​are stronger than his hatred and his lies." Renate Künast is also at stake: l & ### EU should be "destroyed", the tweet of the Green Party .

The announcement is triggered by the announcement of Steve Bannons, with a foundation called The Movement to intervene in favor of the right-wing populist parties during the 2019 election campaign. The former chief advisor to US President Donald Trump wants to support, according to the US news portal "The Daily Beast" of Brussels, parties from European law by helping them to collect data on social networks, organize surveys and targeted messages.

Bannon network parties so that they can form a "superblock" after the elections to the European Parliament. " populist nationalism right r gnera, "he said.He talked about the project with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, with representatives of the Polish ruling party PiS and the former National Front (now National Rally) of Marine Le Pen in France

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Bannon was electrified by the Italian government coalition of the far right Lega and the five-star populist movement. If such a thing works in Italy, says Bannon, "it can succeed anywhere." Formally, he wants to focus on an opponent, the American billionaire George Soros, whose liberal foundation Open Society has been active in Europe for some time. "Soros is the devil," said Bannon, "but he is brilliant."

In 2016, Bannon led Trump's aggressive nationalist election campaign in the United States and became chief strategist at the White House after his election. The president dismissed him but in August 2017. Bannon returned to his press portal "Breitbart News" and lost his post in early 2018. "After his failure in the United States, he wants to turn to the US. Europe, "said Carsten Schneider, Parliamentary Director The SPD parliamentary group, WORLD, warned:" Populism and nationalism would plunge the EU into chaos. "As a" frontal attack on the EU and European values ​​"described the foreign policy of FDP Renata Alt project Bannon

AFD. "Steve Bannon's plans seem very exciting and ambitious," said Bundestag faction leader Alice Weidel WORLD. She had already spoken to the American in early March in Zurich. Now, she said that she had "met him as a very knowledgeable and focused person". She also thinks she is very attached to her new goal: "a foundation against Soros".

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For AfD, Bannon's networking projects may also be interesting as far as the party wants to try to d & rsquo; To have as many right wing parties in the European Parliament as from 2019 join a political group. But if these plans are backed by Bannon, this could be an "inadmissible electoral influence from the outside," says Florian Hahn (CSU), spokesman for the European Union's faction. Union. On the other hand, you have to "resist". And because it works best on the basis of national law, the introduction of transnational electoral lists requested by French President Emmanuel Macron would be problematic. For these, according to Hahn, "could benefit in particular such initiatives."

Hahn is not the only one to use Bannon as an opportunity to criticize also other political opponents. SPD-Mann Schneider said: "The fact that Bannon also wants to cooperate with Viktor Orbán, a friend of CSU, illuminates the state of the Union." And if not, it was all the more important to make a good policy: "We have the populists remove Europe from the soil by solving the problems that really haunt people," said Schneider. "The key to this "is" European cooperation "in many areas.On the other hand, the politician FDP Alt stated that the Bannon project was" a mission for all pro-Europeans to finally implement the necessary reforms in order to make the EU more able to act in these difficult times "and the right populist, so the breeding ground to escape". Therefore, their FDP parliamentary group is committed to proposing concrete reforms, including for a common EU policy on refugees and immigration.