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In July, Bannon unveiled plans to create a Brussels-based think tank called the Movement to support populist groups across Europe ahead of 2019 elections for the European Parliament. He told the Daily Beast that his goal is to form a far-right “supergroup” within the chamber.

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While this proposal has received some support from populist leaders — including Gauland’s AfD co-chair, Alice Weidel, who described Bannon’s project as “ambitious and exciting” in July — the overall reception to the foundation has been chilly.

“Bannon is American and has no place in a European political party,” Jérôme Rivière, the international spokesman for the French far-right party National Rally, told Politico. “We reject any supranational entity and are not participating in the creation of anything with Bannon.”

AfD spokesman Jörg Meuthen has also distanced the party from Bannon, stating in July that the AfD has “no need for coaching from outside the EU.” The party did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, an American University professor who studies far-right culture in Germany, said some European leaders are wary of associating themselves too closely with Bannon in part because he represents a particularly extreme brand of right-wing politics that could make it harder for European parties to win new supporters.

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The AfD, for example, is slowly gaining ground against German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party — the far-right party hit a high of 17 percent in a recent poll — and is looking for more ways to attract mainstream voters. According to Miller-Idriss, rejecting a figure like Bannon is, on some level, an attempt by the AfD to establish itself as distinct from — and more legitimate than — “the really extreme right.”