Bannon tells French far right ‘tide of history is with us’
12 March, 2018
Former top aide of U.S. President Donald Trump Steve Bannon told the French far right on Saturday that “history is on our side” as he addressed a National Front party conference that is seeking to bounce back from crushing electoral setbacks.
“The tide of history is with us and it will compel us to victory after victory, after victory,” Bannon, once a powerful figure in the Trump administration and former head of Breitbart News, told the FN conference in its northern stronghold of Lille.
Party head Marine Le Pen suffered a bruising loss to centrist Emmanuel Macron in last year’s presidential poll and the party won only eight seats in the general election that followed.
Her poor showing in a final TV debate against Macron raised questions about her fitness to lead one of the world’s biggest economies and in the months since both party and leader have appeared deflated.
Bannon, who has repeatedly expressed support for Europe’s far-right movements, fired the opening salvo at the gathering, even if the head of Macron’s Republic on the Move party, Christophe Castaner, earlier dubbed him “the king of fake news and of white supremacists.”