On Friday, Italy’s coalition government said it would revoke rights to the property, owned by a think-tank affiliated with Bannon, known as the Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI).
According to Italy’s Culture Ministry the institute housed in the Certosa de Trisulti monastery has unpaid concession fees and has done no maintenance work on the monastery.
“It’s not about political opinions but respect for the law,” Gianluca Vacca, an undersecretary at the ministry, said. “Thus proceeding with the revocation was a duty,” he said after a legal review and a statement by the prosecutor, reported Italian media on Friday. A corresponding procedure had been initiated.
Italian authorities claim that a bank document the Human Dignity Institute submitted in acquiring rights to use the monastery had been forged.
Benjamin Harnwell, the institute’s British founder, claimed that politics was behind the decision to revoke the lease. He said in response that the institute will be contesting the “illegitimate maneuver with every resource at its disposal no matter how many years it takes”.
But Cardinal Renato Maria Martino, a one-time honorary president of Human Dignity Institute, has called on Harnwell not to use the grounds for political purposes.
Harnwell took over the administration of the monastery last year, when the Cistercian monks moved out. The course was supposed to originally start in the early summer of 2019, but was postponed again and again.
Bannon’s plans to create the “gladiator school” have been met by protests and local opposition. The academy has been part of Bannon’s notion of influencing politics across Europe to the benefit of the Atlanticists.
Among other things, European conservative politicians would be trained in the “Defense of the Judeo-Christian Foundations of Western Civilization”.
Alberto Bonisoli, the Culture Minister from the Five Star Movement, withdrew the concession for the planned training center in the abandoned monastery.
The conservative Catholic think tank DHI has leased the Trisulti Monastery since 2018. However, various contractual obligations have been violated, according to Bonisoli.
In response, Bannon signaled that he would fight the move: “The fight for Trisulti is a microcosm of the fight for the Judeo-Christian West.”
Politicians expressed doubt about the legal basis of the project since the DHI does not have the necessary qualifications, said Nicola Fratoianni. He also asked Parliament whether the monastery should be used for political training at all. Minister of Culture Bonisoli then announced that he would investigate the case.
League MEP Marco Zanni meanwhile said on Wednesday that the Italian party is close to reaching an agreement with Nigel Farage’s Brexit party for an alliance at the European level.
Zanni said that a meeting with Farage “went very well” adding that “we’ll see if we can wrap things up with him next week”. “We have got to a good stage (in talks). We are convinced we can wrap things up,” he continued.
“It’s obvious that he has to say that he has more than one option… (but) it’s a good agreement. It’s beneficial to all of us to be together. I am confident that we can wrap things up next week, aside from what is said in public”.
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