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'History is on our side': former Trump aide Steve Bannon in Zurich

The Local
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'History is on our side': former Trump aide Steve Bannon in Zurich
Photo: AFP

After a long fall from grace, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon landed in Zurich on Tuesday speaking publicly for the first time in Europe.

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A controversial figure, Bannon has been rejected not just by Donald Trump but also by the right-wing US news portal Breitbart that he cofounded.

But speaking before an audience of some 1,500 people on Tuesday night – all of whom had been required to previously register – Bannon proved that while he is down, he is far from out.

The same rhetoric remained as the man who headed up Trump’s electoral campaign in its final surreal months shared his ideas on economic nationalism and restrictive immigration policies.

While around 100 people demonstrated against racism outside the hall in Zurich’s Oerlikon where Bannon was speaking, the alt-right figurehead expressed his continuing support of Trump.

He also drew parallels between the election of the business tycoon and the recent success of the disruptive Cinque Stelle movement and nationalist Lega party in Italy.

“The populist wave in Europe is not over: it’s just getting started. History is on our side,” said Bannon to what Swiss daily the NZZ said was a mostly male audience.

Slamming the faceless establishment “Davos party” made up of elite bankers, lobbyists and economic consultants, Bannon – was who ingloriously hustled out of his own Breitbart company in January – lavished praise on Switzerland.

The former investment banker highlighted the decision by voters in 1992 to snub an initiative that would have seen the country join the European Economic Area, saying this had kick-started the populist rebellion in Europe.

Further flattery saw Bannon praising the former head of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party SVP Christoph Blocher, who coincidentally had announced he was leaving the SVP leadership committee just hours earlier.

“Doctor Blocher,” said Bannon, had been “Trump before there was a Trump.”

Bannon was invited to Zurich by the editor-in-chief of Swiss conservative magazine Die Weltwoche, Roger Köppel.

His planned visit to Zurich was hijacked by a group of Americans in Switzerland who used the occasion to raise funds for gun violence prevention.

Their online fundraising campaign ‘Don't Hate, Donate' was inspired by a 2014 event in Germany in which anti-fascist campaigners hijacked a march by Neo-Nazis to raise money for an anti-extremist organisation.

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