In Italy, former general Roberto Vanacci is founding a new far-right party, rising in the polls and creating serious headaches for Georgia Meloni.<\/p>\n
The new far-right “Futuro Nazionale” (National Future)<\/strong> party of former general Roberto Vanacci<\/strong> is becoming a major political headache for Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni<\/strong> as it steadily strengthens its influence ahead of next year’s crucial elections.<\/p>\n Just four months after leaving Mateo Salvini’s Lega<\/strong>, Vanazzi claims his new movement numbers nearly 100.000 registered members<\/strong>, with polls giving him figures approaching 4%-5%<\/strong> and showing upward momentum.<\/p>\n Although this figure is not considered particularly high, it could prove decisive in a contested election. This development presents Meloni<\/strong> with a difficult dilemma: either to reach out to the new party, risking alienating its more moderate voters, or to keep its distance in the hope that its momentum will be limited.<\/p>\n Vanacci presents the Futuro Nazionale<\/strong> as an uncompromising nationalist<\/strong>, anti-European<\/strong> and philoritarian party, accusing the current government of abandoning its original right-wing positions. It argues that the government has not adequately resisted Brussels<\/strong> pressure, failed to curb crime<\/strong> and failed to implement its commitments on immigrant repatriation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The 57-year-old former paratrooper<\/strong> was in the spotlight in 2023, when he published a book in which he defended traditional Italian values while expressing critical views of LGBT+ people<\/strong>, immigrants<\/strong> and feminist organisations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n His positions provoked a strong reaction. Defense Minister Guido Crozeto<\/strong> accused Vanazzi of discrediting the Armed Forces, and he was suspended from active duty. Notably, he had served as Italy’s military attach\u00e9 to Russia<\/strong> from 2020 to 2022.<\/p>\n Recognizing his popularity with conservative voters, Salvini<\/strong> included him in the League and backed him for election to the European Parliament<\/strong> in 2024. However, this partnership proved short-lived, as Vanacci chose to move autonomously, positioning himself even further to the right of his former allies.<\/p>\n According to political scientist Sophia Ventura<\/strong>, Salvini attempted to capitalize on Vanacci’s popularity, but ended up boosting a future rival. As she sees it, both the League and the Italian Brothers<\/strong> may be pressured to adopt more extreme positions to stem voter leakage.<\/p>\n The latest SWG<\/strong> poll gives the Futuro Nazionale<\/strong> a 4.6%<\/strong> share, compared to 5,8%<\/strong> for the League, while recording a narrow lead for the centrist opposition<\/strong> over the ruling coalition.<\/p>\n Despite his electoral rise, none of the ruling parties appear willing to work directly with Vanacci. His stance is particularly embarrassing to Forza Italia<\/strong> of Foreign Minister Anthony Tagliani<\/strong>, which since the death of Silvio Berlusconi<\/strong> has adopted more moderate and socially liberal positions.<\/p>\n Vanacci himself says he does not intend to sacrifice the political “autonomy<\/strong>” of his movement for the sake of electoral partnerships, stressing that any deal will be done solely on his own terms.<\/p>\n This development worries the staff of Meloni<\/strong>, which in recent years has attempted to transform the Italian Brothers<\/strong> from a protest party into a credible governing force with strong relations with both Brussels<\/strong> and Washington<\/strong>.<\/p>\n At the same time, the new party has already attracted eight MPs<\/strong> from the ranks of the ruling coalition, while combining tough anti-European rhetoric with scepticism about Western military and economic support for Ukraine.<\/p>\n For now, the momentum of the Futuro Nazionale<\/strong> remains inextricably linked to the popularity of its founder. However, if it manages to acquire a strong party organisation, credible cadres and broader political representation, it could become a serious factor in reshuffling Italy’s political scene and one of Meloni’s most important rivals from the right.<\/p>\n Sources:Reuters, APM<\/i><\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Italy, former general Roberto Vanacci founds a new far-right party, rises in the polls and creates serious headaches in Georgia …<\/p>\n In Italy, former general Roberto Vanacci founds a new far-right party, rises in the polls and creates serious headaches in Georgia …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From League to political challenge<\/h3>\n
The rise of a controversial figure<\/h3>\n
Danger for the centre-right alliance<\/h3>\n