Vannacci's National Future party shakes Italy's far right

A year out from Italy's next general election, the rise of Roberto Vannacci's National Future party is sending an ominous signal across the country, according to a Guardian editorial published this week. The former paratrooper general, who once served as a military attaché in Moscow, founded the party in February after exploiting the notoriety of his 2023 far-right tract, The World Turned Upside Down, which was suspended for bringing the army into disrepute.

The Guardian reports that polls now place National Future just behind Forza Italia, the second-biggest party in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's hard-right coalition, and ahead of its third main component, Matteo Salvini's League. The party argues that Meloni's government has sold out its far-right supporters by not being extreme enough, advocating a pro-Putin, anti-EU line and the expulsion of immigrants and their descendants.