Steve Bannon: Italy vote ‘crucial’ for populists

ROME — Steve Bannon, the nationalist architect of Donald Trump’s White House campaign, says Italy’s election is “crucial” for the global populist movement and that if populists don’t win now they will in the future.

In an interview published in Sunday’s Corriere della Sera, Bannon says he came to Rome to “observe” the election. He says he’s particularly keen to see how the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and anti-immigrant, nationalist League party fare.

He says: “I think if they create a coalition among all the populists it would be fantastic, it would terrify Brussels and pierce it in its heart.”

Bannon, who crafted Trump’s anti-Muslim ban and backs a US border wall with Mexico, says Italians have had enough of Europe’s migrant crisis. Describing himself as a “proud Catholic,” he says Pope Francis had nevertheless “exacerbated the migrant crisis” with his call for Europe to open its arms to refugees.

He says: “The pope is infallible in doctrine, but not in church policy in the world.”

— AP