Trump's ex-aide Bannon to address National Front congress in France

[March 10, 2018]    PARIS (Reuters) - Former White House strategist Steve Bannon, a champion of Donald Trump's "America First" agenda, will address the party congress of France's far-right National Front on Saturday, a senior official of the French anti-immigrant party said.

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon gestures as he speaks during a conference of Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche in Zurich, Switzerland, March 6, 2018. REUTERS/Moritz Hager

Bannon, an American nationalist who ran the right-wing Breitbart News, was among Trump's closest aides during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, the presidential transition and his first months in office.

But the pair had a bitter public falling out and Bannon was fired by the White House last August, though he continued to speak with Trump and tried to promote the president's agenda.

National Front leader Marine Le Pen will meet Bannon at her party's convention in the French city of Lille on Saturday, her partner Louis Aliot said in a tweet.

The party is expected to unveil a new name as it searches for more voters and relevance in a political landscape transformed by President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist who defeated Le Pen in France's election last May.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Gareth Jones)

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.