Bannon formed a foundation around 2018 for nationalist parties called The Movement. Bannon is supportive of European right-wing populist national conservative movements such as the Hungarian Fidesz, the French National Front (now National Rally), the Spanish Vox, the Dutch Party for Freedom, Alternative for Germany, the Italian Northern League, the Brothers of Italy, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Sweden Democrats, the Finns Party, the Flemish Vlaams Belang, the Belgian People's Party, the Polish National Movement, and the Swiss People's Party. Bannon has also praised the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government of Narendra Modi in India, and Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party government in Japan. Bannon called Chinese people "the salt of the earth — hardworking, decent, family-oriented", but he believes that Xi Jinping's communist regime in Beijing presents "the greatest existential danger" ever to the United States "because we have never faced an opponent with the scale and ambitions of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party". Bannon criticized China's construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea. In his talk delivered to a small conference in the Vatican during 2014, Bannon said: "If you look back at the long history of the Judeo-Christian West struggle against Islam, I believe that our forefathers kept their stance, and I think they did the right thing. I think they kept it out of the world, whether it was at Vienna, or Tours, or other places ... it bequeathed to us the great institution that is the church of the West". He is reputed to believe Putin's Russia and Trump's America are Christian allies against the Islamic State and "radical Islamic terrorism". Bannon's political and economic views have been described by others as nationalist, right-wing populist, and paleoconservative. He self-identifies as a conservative. He rejects allegations that he is a white nationalist, calling white nationalists "losers", a "fringe element", and a "collection of clowns", and describing white supremacist Richard Spencer as a "self promoting freak" and a "goober". At a party congress in March 2018, Bannon gave members of the French right-wing populist National Front (NF) what has been described as a "populist pep talk". Bannon advised the party members to "Let them call you racist, let them call you xenophobes, let them call you nativists. Wear it like a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker. ...