The far-right party Futuro Nazionale (National Future) announced on Saturday that it had doubled its representation in the Italian Parliament, from four to eight deputies, after four parliamentarians switched allegiances a year before the 2027 general election.
“While some dismissed us as a flash in the pan, Futuro Nazionale continues to grow,” the party stated on social media. The party was created in February by the retired general. Roberto Vannacci, which challenges the right-wing government from within its own base and complicates Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's reelection plans.
Vannacci extols Italy's Roman-Christian roots while attacking immigrants, feminists, and LGBTQ+ people. This week's research They indicate that Futuro Nazionale is polling at around 4,5% of the vote, most of which is drawn from the League, the anti-immigration party of the Deputy Prime Minister. Matteo Salvini.
Meloni's party remains in the lead, with around 28%, but the advance of the National Front is reducing the gap with the League, which is at approximately 6%. The new party could play a decisive role in 2027 by splitting the right-wing vote.
Survival strategies
Giovanni Orsina, a political scientist at Luiss University in Rome, told AFP that he does not expect the National Front to exceed 3% or 4% in the election, but cautioned that even that result "could decide the victory or defeat of the right-wing coalition."
Two of the new deputies came from the League and another two from the center-right Forza Italia. For Orsina, the change was expected, since parliamentarians bet on the party that offers the best chance of re-election. "In the end, they are personal strategies for political survival; I wouldn't attribute much political value to them," he stated.
Who is Vannacci?
A career military officer who served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Vannacci gained notoriety in 2023 with the book "The World Upside Down." In the work, he wrote that homosexuality is not "normal" and denounced a "dictatorship of minorities."
He also stated that volleyball player Paola Egonu, who is black, had features that “do not represent Italianness.” Vannacci was dismissed from the Army before receiving authorization to retire, and the controversy turned him into a far-right celebrity.
Salvini, whose League has been losing ground to Meloni, invited him to join the party, and Vannacci was elected to the European Parliament in 2024. "Salvini created Vannacci; it was a mistake on Salvini's part," assessed the political scientist. Today, the general is targeting voters disillusioned with Salvini and with Meloni, who has roots in the far right but has adopted a more pragmatic stance in government. (With information from AFP)
