The emergence of a new political party in Italy in February 2026 caused turmoil in the national political landscape, threatening Italy’s stability after the December 2027 general elections. National Future (Futuro Nazionale, FN), led by a former Italian Army general, Roberto Vannacci, may significantly affect the next Italian general election.
A right-wing extremist party, FN, deploys a rhetoric that merges xenophobia, racism, anti-LGBTI and anti-NATO rhetoric and Russophilia. Based on his experience as a League European lawmaker, Vannacci targets the constituencies of both the far-right (the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni‘s Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini‘s League) and the controversial Five Star Movement (M5S).
Vannacci, the newest member of the extremist Europe of Sovereign Nations Group in the European Parliament but also a fan of the US President Donald Trump, successfully copies their rhetoric of hate, fear and “anti-establishment” political proposals.
Meloni and the rest of the Italian Right
Following the 2022 general elections, which Giorgia Meloni won with 43.8% in Parliament and 44% in the Senate, she formed a government with her allies, the League of Salvini, Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi and Noi Moderati of Maurizio Lupi. This government brought an unprecedented period of stability to Italy, making Meloni the longest-serving head of government in the Italian Republic’s 80-year history.
However, this “record” is now threatened by Vannacci’s party, which seeks to create a hard-right pole aimed at far-right and populist constituencies.
Meloni’s party has its roots in neo-fascism, a movement that emerged in 1947 and integrated former members of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist party. Her campaign promoted EU scepticism, prompting analysts to speculate that she would be a hard-line nationalist if elected. Instead, she managed to present herself as a pragmatic conservative leader with a moderate, pro-European approach.
Still, Meloni remained loyal to the core of her party’s far-right roots. She adopted a hard anti-migration policy, trying to reach agreements with third countries, primarily Albania, to create special refugee camps and send non-legal migrants and refugees there. Something that resembles the extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s re-emigration policy. She also attacked the established rights of the LGBTI communities, creating a gloomy reality for many members of this community, and the Roma rights.
In July 2023, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) released a report profiling 13 far-right hate and extremist groups in Italy, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s and Salvini’s parties, both government parties. The report described Brothers of Italy as “White Nationalist, Anti-Immigrant, Anti-LGBTQ+, Anti-Muslim and the League as Anti-Woman, Anti-Immigrant, Anti-LGBTQ+, Anti-Roma and Anti-Muslim. It also expressed concern that major political parties in Italy are spreading the same hateful and polarising messages as more hardcore groups.
However, for the right-wing extremist area of Italian politics, this is not enough. Thus, Vannacci claims to represent the “real right” and patriotic force in Italy, directly challenging Meloni.
Vannacci, 57, gained political attention with his controversial 2023 book “Il mondo al contrario” (The World Upside Down), which attacked LGBTQ+ individuals, migrants, and minorities. The fame this book earned led Salvini to include his author on the League’s list for the 2024 European elections, where he received over 530,000 votes.
Although Salvini promoted him inside his party, even appointing him deputy secretary of the League in May 2025, Vannacci’s ambitions were broader. By Autumn 2025, rumours suggested that the former general had a completely different personal agenda from the one Salvini had designed for him. As a deputy secretary of Salvini’s party, he pushed his own men onto the lists for the 2025 municipal elections, creating a support network with elected officials in local and regional administrations across the country. He left the League in February 2026 to launch his Futuro Nazionale.
Since then, Vannacci has consolidated support. The party says it has surpassed 140,000 members and now has eight deputies, including defectors from the League and centrist Forza Italia, underscoring unease within Meloni’s coalition.
Targeting M5S constituency
When Vannacci announced the creation of his political party in February, Giuseppe Conte, the leader of the Five Star Movement and a former Prime Minister, was among the first political leaders to react against this new political contender.
In fact, there are several similarities between the rhetoric used by both politicians. Conte refuses any help to Ukraine and is pro-Russian, like the general. Of course, Russophilia is also expressed by Salvini’s League and the green-leftist AVS. Conte’s recent comments about NATO and Italy’s membership were also ambiguous.
What is more, the M5S was created in 2013 as an “antisystemic” party adopting a right-wing populist rhetoric. However, under Conte’s leadership, the movement moved towards centrist positions, leaving an unknown number of disillusioned voters. These voters are now targets of Vannacci’s FN.
Tensions rose between Vannacci and Conte when, on 9 August, Luca Sforzini, President of the far-right think tank “Rinascimento Nazionale,” linked to the FN, sent a letter to M5S founder Beppe Grillo, suggesting common ground for dialogue between the early M5S and the FN.
Vannacci is focusing on disillusioned M5S voters. While Grillo has distanced himself from Conte, he still represents the anti-establishment sentiment from 2013.
Sforzini’s letter aims to reach those who once viewed the M5S as a tool for rebellion against established politics but feel disconnected from Conte’s leadership. The conflict between Grillo and the current M5S president has enabled Futuro Nazionale to emerge as a new player in the anti-establishment protest movement.
The war between Russia and Ukraine highlights a shared vision among Sforzini, Grillo, and parts of the Five Star Movement regarding military aid. Vannacci aims to attract the pro-Russian Right, non-voters, and former Grillo supporters.
How National Future intends to make politics
In July, an AI-generated video, inspired by Trump’s similar actions and posted on Vannacci’s social media account, revealed how Vannacci intends to run his electoral campaign.
In this video, Vannacci appears dressed in the imperial garb of ancient Rome; seated between Giorgia Meloni and Ignazio La Russa, the President of the Italian Senate, he is ready to send Elly Schlein, the leader of the Democratic Party, Giuseppe Conte, Laura Boldrini, a former politician, and former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi to their deaths with a simple thumbs-down gesture. He does so to the acclaim of a crowd eager for just that moment. Yet, it is not the lions—pawing the ground in anticipation—who will execute the “opponents.” Still, rather, Giuseppe Barboni, the FN militant who, armed with a hammer and sickle, assaulted an Iraqi immigrant in July in San Benedetto del Tronto.
Vannacci’s platform centres on hard-line positions on security and migration, including calls for the “remigration” of foreigners he considers not integrated, opposition to EU policies such as the Green Deal, openly anti-gay, anti-feminist and anti-abortion positions and plans to create separate classes for intellectually disabled students. Vannacci, who served as military attaché in Moscow between 2020 and 2022, opposes Western sanctions on Russia and expresses sympathy for Vladimir Putin.
Current polls give Futuro Nazionale single-digit support, but it has potential that other parties don’t. Recent polls indicate that Brothers of Italy has 27% support, while its government partners, League, Forza Italia, and Noi Moderati, have 6%, 8%, and 1.1%, respectively. If we consider that the newborn National Future attracts about 7% of the vote, the picture is rather concerning for the government coalition parties. On the other hand, polls give the M5S only 12.7% support.
To heighten concerns, a poll measuring preferences regarding political leaders found Vannacci among the five most trusted party leaders, alongside Meloni, Elly Schlein, Antonio Tajani, the leader of Forza Italia and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Conte.
What Vannacci can cause to Italy’s political system
Although the reactions of both Meloni and Salvini to the announcement of the establishment of the National Future were initially weak, the two far-right parties feel the potential electoral damage such a new political force could cause.
In July, Meloni accused Vannacci-aligned lawmakers of undermining the government and backing left-wing policies. Her party, Brothers of Italy, and its allies have ruled out electoral agreements. Currently, Meloni is avoiding confrontation. Salvini called Vannacci’s split a “betrayal” and is downplaying the FN’s political impact.
It is still early to assess the FN’s impact when Italians go to the polls, after quite a year and a half. The rise of the FN could push Meloni to harden its policies at the national and international levels. However, such a shift towards more “rightist” politics could damage the image of a severe yet moderate conservative leader that the prime minister so hard tries to build.
Earlier or later, the most threatening leaders, Meloni, Salvini and Conte, would be forced by the events to respond to Vannacci’s offence. Salvini and Conte risk losing part of their supporters, a fact that could limit their negotiating power in future government coalitions. Meloni could face the challenge of being unable to form a government.
Vannacci’s Russophilia, his admiration for Trump and the conflict between the US president and Prime Minister Meloni suggest that, from now on, Italy will be a target of disinformation efforts, hybrid attacks and political interference. If Vannacci increases his party’s support, Italy will also risk its stability.