The monastery, located on a remote Italian hilltop a couple hours outside of Rome, will teach students how to defend "the Judeo-Christian West," Bannon told CBS News , adding that the school will be aimed toward "mid-career" people "looking to do something different." The Daily Beast described the school as "an alt-right compound in the foothills around Rome."
At the helm of the project is Benjamin Harnwell, a former European Parliament staffer andBannon associate with ties to the pro-Brexit UKIP party.Harnwell is currently the director of the right-wing Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which on its website describes its mission as , "defending the Judaeo-Christian foundations of Western Civilization through the recognition that Man is made in the Image and Likeness of God."
Harnwell told CBS News that he was initially drawn to Bannon following a 2014 speech he delivered via Skype at a conference organized by the Institute at the Vatican. Bannon's spoke on his issues with capitalism, the "immense secularization of the West," and what he described as the West's "outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism," according to a transcript of the speech obtained by BuzzFeed.
Harnwell told CBS News that he currently lives at the monastery, called Trisulti, along with one monk and a cook, and plans to accept around 50 students in the school's first class. He told The Daily Beast that the university will cater to right-wing politicians across Europe.
The school drew protests from several hundred locals in Decemberdisplaying banners that read "Stop Bannon, Free Europe," according to Agence-France Presse.
