Italy evicts Steve Bannon from $110,000-a-year medieval monastery that was to be was his “gladiator school for cultural warriors”
Arrivederci, asshole.
In Italy, authorities are reportedly evicting alt-right self-promoter Steve Bannon from the medieval monastery he'd planned to transform into a white supremacist radicalization academy, "after reports of fraud in the competitive tender process."
Being evicted from his fancy Italian gladiator castle is a big setback for Bannon, who's trying to grow an alt-right empire in Europe.
Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reports today that the Italian government is saying "uh, no, grazie" to the Trump consigliere and global grifter's plans to turn a monastery near Rome into a training academy for would-be 21st-century Wehrmachters.
Here's the official announcement from Italy's cultural heritage ministry, Friday, May 31, saying the lease granted to Bannon has been revoked after reports of "fraud in the competitive tender process."
"The former Breitbart chief and aide to US president Donald Trump was reportedly paying a100,000 ($110,000) per year to rent the 13th Century Carthusian monastery, but now will have to search for another spot," writes Luiz Romero, reporting for QZ.com:
The Italian state allowed the conservative Catholic organization Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) to use the building early last year. Bannon happens to be a trustee of the institute, and planned to convert the space into a "gladiator school for cultural warriors," where students would learn philosophy, theology, history, and economics, and receive political training from the former Trump aide himself.
But earlier this month, Italian newspaper Repubblica reported that a letter used to guarantee the lease was forged. The letter had the signature of an employee of Danish bank Jyske, but the bank said that employee hadn't worked there for years, and called the letter fraudulent.
The Economist reported last week that Benjamin Harnwell, the director of the institute, was surprised by the revelation. Bannon, meanwhile, claimed the letter was "totally legitimate."
"All of this stuff is just dust being kicked up by the left," Bannon said at the time.
It's unclear if the DHI is going to fight the decision. It hasn't answered a request for comment.
[via @JenLucPiquant]