PARIS, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump's former chief strategist on Monday praised "resilience" of far-right leader Marine Le Pen to come back after 2017 defeat and transform the eurosceptic movement to a political power likely to shake the domestic political mainstream on May 26.
"I'm really interested in Marine Le Pen, because she is present on (the populist) landscape... and because she has managed to come back from her failure in 2017, and the way in which she has given a new identity to the Front National, everything that she has done to lead her party -- I find it quite remarkable," Bannon told BFM TV news television.
Bannon, who represented Trump's nationalistic voice via "America First" approach, expected France to be "at the centre" of nationalist movements following Le Pen's political recovery.
In an interview to Le Parisien newspaper at the weekend, Bannon estimated that the due race to the European parliament would be "an earthquake" that would shake President Emmanuel Macron's globalist and open platform.
Trump's former chief strategist rejected any involvement into Le Pen's campaign for the European elections, saying he was in France as an "observer". Meanwhile, his visit few days ahead the contests ignited criticism that denounced "an attack on sovereignty."
"A European construction and a strong Europe are the conditions of our sovereignty. I can see how much that bother Steve Bannon and Donald Trump ... What I do not understand is that French people who claim to defend the population and the nation are taking over people whose interest is to weaken Europe," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Sunday.
On his tweeter account, Culture Minister Franck Riester Culture asked far-right leader "Do you think you are protecting the French when you make alliance with the FPO suspected of collusion with Russia or when you receive advice from the nationalist Steve Bannon?"
To Pascal Canfin, candidate of the ruling party to snatch a seat in Starsbourg-based parliament, "Marine Le Pen is the candidate of a new system, the Trump-Putin system."
"Today, the National Rally is the useful idiot of this political project... to destroy Europe...The result of this election will only impact France, but also Europe and over the global," he was quoted as saying by local media.
Rejecting the criticism as a plot or "crazy charges," the far-right's leader stressed "Bannon has no role in our campaign."
"I did not even know he was in Paris for business. It has nothing to do with the campaign. It is you, the media that are dragging him into the campaign," she told France info radio.
"The government is putting all its energy to deliver defamation against us...The French are not fooled, and those who think that it will have an influence on the election will be disappointed," she said.
Macron's political credentials will be tested during the upcoming European elections, as the momentum of nationalism is increasing both at home and in neighbor countries.
Pollsters show Macron's centrist party and that of Le Pen, formerly known as the National Front, would be neck-and-neck.
The president's movement, he created in 2016, has been campaigning for stronger eurozone and further economic openness to bolster domestic economy and create business opportunities for millions of people without work.
His rival Le Pen proposed the other face of the coin via nationalist project aimed at install internal borders to slash immigration which she said was the main cause of rising security fears and rampant unemployment.
With rhetoric hostile to the European Union, the far-rightists topped European elections in France in 2014 with 24.85 percent of the votes, after discontent voters pushed, then the ruling Socialist party at the third place.
