The retired Italian general Roberto Vannacci, 57, who burst into public life in 2023 with a book titled The World Upside Down, a bestseller full of racist, sexist, and homophobic slogans, has ceased to be an emerging exotic element: he has already emerged. In February, he stood up the League, which signed him in 2024 for the European elections hoping to assimilate him, and founded his own party, National Future (FN). He already had eight defecting deputies from government parties ― they call themselves “futurists,” one of many nods to the twenties ―. In June, he held his first congress and in recent weeks has published a long program in two parts that have been his last fireworks and have caused a great stir. His model of society is something he calls “Mediterranean patriarchy,” which he explains as follows: “It aims at emphasizing specificities and the formation of strong men, capable of mastering emotions and passions, protecting women and offering themselves for the construction and defense of society.”
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It is the calling card for other controversial proposals. For example, banning the presence of gays and LGBTI people on television (between six in the morning and eleven at night), to keep minors away from “gender and homosexual” content; eliminating the crime of femicide and also civil unions; a 22-point “remigration” plan, in which a foreigner will be expelled when their work contract ends, they have no access to any social aid, and doctors examining immigrants will be military personnel, because they are not subject “to ideological suggestions contrary to repatriations.” Abortion is not considered a right; the morning-after pill will not be prescribed in outpatient clinics; he proposes that each child entitles their parents to an equal number of ballots in elections. The age of criminal responsibility for a minor would be lowered from 14 to 12 years. He intends to review the current regulations on torture because “they present interpretative ambiguities that generate uncertainty and risk of operational paralysis for personnel acting in emergency and dangerous contexts.”
All with declared nostalgic, military rhetoric and echoes of the fascist regime (“ardor, virtue, and sacrifice”), claiming “an identitarian, pure, and vital right, rooted in Roman and Christian tradition, determined to return Italy to its roots (…), which places natural family, identity, security, merit, and tradition at the center.” Vannacci, former commander of the Italian elite paratrooper unit and veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, dreams of a militarized society, with “military education in schools and an expansion of the role of the armed forces in the territory.” In high schools, courses on “defense and national security education,” and also military training camps to attract the Army “to the best young people with the right character.”
The program proposes that citizenship be obtained only after 20 years of residence, an Italian exam, and signing “a declaration of assimilation to Greek, Roman, and Christian civilization.” Entry permits to the country will give preference to those coming from “majority Christian countries, whose data show a low inclination to criminality.” The reason is that these foreigners “do not undermine the cultural unity of our country, which today is threatened by a mass Mohammedan invasion” (in reality, the Muslim population in Italy is 4%). In a jab at Giorgia Meloni, he proposes dialoguing with the United States “in an erect position.”
With all this, polls already place FN with a minimum of 8% of the votes, and up to 12%, above the League (4.4%) and Forza Italia (7.1%), Meloni’s two coalition partners. That is, it would be the second party of the right. The far-right leader celebrated this Friday the record duration of her government, but there are nerves in her coalition and she is constantly looking at Vannacci in the rearview mirror. He is already one of her main problems.
“Russia’s Trojan Horse in Italy”
The retired general is beginning to attract special attention. The Financial Times described him this week as “Russia’s Trojan horse in Italy,” recalling that he was military attaché at the Italian Embassy in Moscow from 2020 to 2022, opposes sending weapons to Ukraine, and advocates restoring relations with Vladimir Putin. The truth is that his program mentions Russia up to 13 times, more than pensions (seven) or wages (three).
On the other hand, a military union has recently filed two complaints against FN, which are being examined by two different prosecutors. One is in Rome, for alleged attempt to reconstitute the fascist party, a crime established by a 1952 law, but difficult to apply and used on rare occasions. The second, in military jurisdiction, for the presence of active army members among its leaders, although FN’s lawyers claim there is no incompatibility and if anything it is a disciplinary matter. Nevertheless, Vannacci uses all this to show that the system is turning against him because it fears him. He made a video dressed with a Russian hat and toasting with vodka.
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Until now Meloni thought she had him under control simply by trying to say things more far-right than him from time to time. She and especially the League leader, Matteo Salvini, who sees a real danger of being reduced to nothing, have tried to compete these months with the ex-general in bombastic statements and approving impactful measures on security and immigration. But it is difficult to outdo Vannacci in outbursts. He is in opposition and is not afraid to use Mussolini’s slogans and even the glorious past of the Roman Empire. When the League presented him for the 2024 European elections, not without internal tensions, they could see his potential, as there were open lists and each candidate was voted for: he alone obtained 555,980 votes. Now his new party is eating up the League.
Vannacci’s main effect has been to disrupt electoral calculations for the next elections, scheduled for April or May 2027, if, as is likely, they are brought forward, or in autumn if the legislature runs its course. Meloni was already preparing an electoral system change, which began processing in summer, to avoid defeat or a tie. The current one, which gave her victory in 2022 because it rewarded coalitions and the left ran divided, no longer guarantees her success. But Vannacci’s rise makes her fear that the numbers will no longer add up. She does not know what might be better, to fight him, with the problem of having to distance herself from the far-right world she comes from, or to incorporate him into her coalition, with the danger that entails. But there is a third option she is exploring these days, neutralizing him in the design of the new electoral system.
The idea of a last amendment is to establish a two-round system for the two most voted coalitions, which would leave FN out, and with the advantage that its followers would converge on Meloni in the second round. But the risk is that for that very reason, in the first vote it will already capture a large number of protest votes against the government and the hole it opens in the right will be even bigger.
Vannacci has proven skillful on social media and in making videos in Trump style with artificial intelligence: in one spread in July he appeared as a Roman emperor in the Colosseum, condemning opposition leaders to death, tied up in the arena. He sells himself as a new politician, something that in Italian politics, which burns acronyms and candidates, has always worked. He boasts of being fit, has spent the summer appearing in swimwear and T-shirt saying he swims three nautical miles.
While Meloni does her best to distance herself from her past as a militant in post-fascism and to please her most radical audience sometimes says things with a small voice, Vannacci speaks without complexes, with continuous slogans from the fascist past and provocative winks. For example, he plays with the symbol of the X Mas, the fascist military unit of commander Junio Valerio Borghese, or wears a pendant with a double axe, symbol of Ordine Nuovo, a seventies movement dissolved for fascism and later turned into a terrorist group. Although he later denied that was the case: he claimed it is also the symbol of Crete and he bought it as a souvenir on the Greek island.
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