Steve Bannon’s School for Far-Right Populists Can’t Be Evicted From an 800-Year-Old Italian Monastery, a Court Rules

The Italian Ministry of Culture plans to appeal the verdict, and is pushing for Bannon’s organization to be slapped with criminal charges.

Steve Bannon’s far-right Judeo-Christian organization has won the latest legal battle in its quest to establish a school at an 800-year-old mountaintop monastery in Italy. But now, the Italian Ministry of Culture, which has sought to oust the organization for over a year now, is hitting back with criminal charges.

Following a hearing held earlier this month, three administrative judges ruled this week that the ministry has no right to revoke the 19-year lease of the monastery that it awarded over two years ago to Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, and his partner Benjamin Harnwell, a former aide to a conservative British member of the European Parliament. The verdict was first reported by The Art Newspaper.

The ministry has been trying to evict the duo ever since they announced their plans to turn the complex, an ornate abbey built by Carthusian monks in the 13th century, into an educational facility for far-right “modern gladiators” called the Academy for the Judeo-Christian West. Billed as a kind of boot camp for populists, the academy will offer courses in history, philosophy, politics, and theology to 250 to 300 students at a time.

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/steve-bannons-far-right-school-cant-evicted-800-year-old-italian-monastery-judges-ruled-week-1872006?utm_content=from_&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=US%20News%20Afternoon%204%3A45%20pm%205%2F28%2F20&utm_term=US%20Daily%20Newsletter%20%5BAFTERNOON%5D