The General and the Normalisation

The Guardian's editorial on the rise of Roberto Vannacci's National Future party carries a title that should give us all pause: 'the rise of a rogue general.' It is a phrase that captures both the man and the moment. A serving general who published a far-right tract in 2023, faced a disciplinary inquiry, and has now translated that notoriety into political success, is a figure that the international press rightly treats as an ominous signal. The Guardian's view is that extreme politics are becoming normalised, and we share that concern.

The details are worth recalling, as the Guardian presents them. Vannacci's book, 'The World Turned Upside Down,' was a sustained provocation that led to official discipline. Yet the discipline did not end his career; it launched it. This is the alchemy of the contemporary far right: the scandal becomes the platform, the rebuke becomes the credential. The foreign observer sees this pattern repeating across Europe, and Italy is now its most recent laboratory.

We would extend the Guardian's argument with a reflection on the military's place in democratic life. A serving officer who enters the political fray blurs a line that democracies depend upon. The armed forces are meant to be apolitical instruments of the state, and when a general campaigns against the government he serves, the institution itself is diminished. The Guardian is right to call this a 'rogue' phenomenon, but we would note that rogues only thrive when the institutions meant to contain them hesitate.

The normalisation the Guardian warns about is not accomplished in a single election. It is a gradual process of desensitisation, where the unthinkable becomes the debatable, and the debatable becomes the acceptable. Each step is small, each headline is fleeting, but the direction is consistent. The world's press will continue to report on Vannacci's rise, and we will continue to read those reports with the attention they deserve, because what happens in Rome's political salons will be felt in the squares of every European capital.

The Guardian's editorial concludes with a call to vigilance, and we echo it. But vigilance must be paired with understanding. The success of National Future is not an inexplicable anomaly; it is a response to anxieties that are real and widely felt. Until the political centre addresses those anxieties with more than dismissal, the rogue general will continue to find his audience.