The Rise of a Military General as a Politician in Italy: Roberto Vannacci 

Giorgia Meloni will be forced to forge an alliance with an up-and-coming hard-Right party founded by a former special forces commander if she is to win the next election, a poll suggests.

The survey, by Ipsos, found that the three-party coalition led by Ms Meloni currently commands 41.7 per cent of votes.

A coalition of centre-Left opposition parties could expect to win 44.5 per cent of the vote.

To beat the centre-Left, the prime minister will need to form an alliance with Futuro Nazionale, the party founded in February by Roberto Vannacci, a paratrooper general who offered extremist views.

It is polling at around 6 per cent, which would boost the centre-Right to 47.7 per cent.

Italy’s next general election has not yet been called but must be held by next year, with speculation that Italians will go to the polls in either April or the autumn.

“It is evident that the centre-Right will be obliged to form an alliance with Vannacci, who would bring the vote up to 47.7 per cent,” analyst Nando Pagnoncelli wrote in Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Ms Meloni’s electoral fortunes may be even more precarious than the Ipsos poll suggests.

Her Brothers of Italy party has reportedly carried out confidential polling which found that it may win just 25 per cent of the vote, while Gen Vannacci could attract up to 10 per cent of votes. The internal polling was reported by La Repubblica newspaper, which said it had been confirmed by sources within Ms Meloni’s party.

Doing a deal with Gen Vannacci is fraught with danger for Ms Meloni.

The former paratrooper was suspended from active service in the army after writing a book that included anti-immigrant, anti-feminist and homophobic remarks.

Some members of his party are accused of having fascist sympathies. Gen Vannacci regularly lauds an elite army unit from the Second World War called the Decima Flottiglia MAS, or Xª MAS for short.

It fought with distinction as a commando unit in the early part of the war, carrying out raids against Royal Navy ships.

But after the armistice of 1943, it stayed loyal to Benito Mussolini and his remnant fascist regime and was accused of carrying out torture and other abuses against partisan fighters.

Gen Vannacci insists that when he celebrates the unit, he is remembering its feats during the early part of the war, not the alleged abuses that it carried out after 1943.

But his views will prove unpalatable to key figures in Ms Meloni’s coalition, in particular Forza Italia, the conservative party that was founded by Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister.

Marina Berlusconi, his daughter, is a powerful backer of the party and is said to be deeply uncomfortable with being associated with Gen Vannacci.

Any attempt by Ms Meloni to bring the general and his party into the fold would upset the delicate equilibrium of the coalition, which consists of her Brothers of Italy party, Forza Italia and The League, led by Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister.

“We’re going to blow up The League and Forza Italia,” one of the general’s supporters was quoted as saying on Sunday. “I can’t wait to see what Marina Berlusconi will do when she realises that the centre-Right needs us.”

Until recently, Ms Meloni appeared to be keeping Futuro Nazionale at arm’s length. She has accused the hard-Right party of aiding the centre-Left, pointing out that Futuro Nazionale had chosen to vote against the government on several occasions during parliamentary confidence votes.

There are now signs, however, that Brothers of Italy is realising that it may have to do a deal to win the next election.

“If the vote is to be held next September, which is the government’s intention, then there will be time to reflect and to compare policies with Futuro Nazionale,” said Galeazzo Bignami, a senior member of Brothers of Italy.

Gen Vannacci founded his party just a few months ago, but it has already eclipsed The League, from which he defected. The League now commands just 5.6 per cent of votes nationally, according to the Ipsos poll.