Italy Crushes Steve Bannon's Dream Of A School For Alt-Right Cafones

Possa tutto ciò che tocca trasformarsi in merda!

Steve Bannon had a dream. No, not the one where he devotes his life to providing a platform for professional bigots, nor the one where he turns the United States into a total hell hole by helping to elect an actual monster as President, but the one where he goes to Italy, takes over an 800-year-old monastery outside of Rome, opens up a "gladiator school for culture warriors" called the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, and becomes the The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie remake we never asked for.

In case you were wondering, the Italian term for "eye roll" is "occhi al cielo."

Alas, this has not worked out, because dude is more than a little schifoso and, in the process of attempting to secure the property, committed fraud. Whoops!  

Via Think Progress :

The government said it took seriously reports of fraud in the competitive tender process that led to Bannon securing the property to establish a self-described "gladiator school for cultural warriors," where students would learn right-wing, nationalistic philosophy, theology, history, and economics, and receive political instructions from Bannon.

But these plans went awry, potentially permanently, earlier this month after the Italian newspaper, Repubblica, reported that a letter used to guarantee the lease was forged. In its investigation, the newspaper discovered the letter displayed a signature purported to be of an employee at the Danish bank Jyske. Bank officials told the newspaper that the letter was fraudulent because the employee hadn't worked there for years.

The revelations prompted Italian Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli to declare the contract with Bannon null and void, arguing the DHI school failed to meet the leasing conditions. Moreover, Bonisoli said the school had not paid the rent and had not carried out required maintenance work.

In a statement that I can't really do a full translation of right now, Gianluca Vacca, the Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage explained that those associated with the DHI did not have any real knowledge of the cultural importance of the monastery and was not going to protect or promote it, that there was no one associated with the project that had the required five years experience in the field of cultural protection, and that they didn't pay the required fees.

Vacca further explained that the revocation had nothing to do with Bannon's gross political persuasions, but rather the fact that they did not trust the DHI with the important job of preserving a piece of Italy's cultural heritage. Given that Steve Bannon can barely preserve himself, this does not come as a shock.

Regardless of the reasoning, this comes as a relief to the many Italians in the area who were not looking forward to a second coming of Mussolini, and who were protesting Bannon's project. It also comes as a relief to me, because I am not particularly into the idea of Steve Bannon ruining both countries I have citizenship in. Italy does not need his shit right now, and neither does any other country on earth. Vaffanculo!

[ ThinkProgress ]