{"id":24583,"date":"2026-06-14T19:23:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/24583\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T19:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:23:17","slug":"italian-general-launches-rival-far-right-party-in-challenge-to-meloni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/24583\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian general launches rival far-right party in challenge to Meloni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Italian general Roberto Vannacci delivers his speech at the end of the national assembly of his far-right Futuro Nazionale party, in Rome, on Sunday.Remo Casilli\/Reuters<\/p>\n

General Roberto Vannacci launched his new far-right party on Sunday, posing a direct challenge to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s grip on power as he seeks to pull Italy in a more hardline, nationalist direction ahead of elections next year.<\/p>\n

Introduced by a party official as a modern-day Julius Caesar, the 57-year-old former paratrooper was greeted by chants of \u201cGenerale, Generale, Generale\u201d as he took to the stage of Futuro Nazionale\u2019s inaugural congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe represent the rejects and the dregs, and are proud of it,\u201d said Vannacci, who is looking to outflank Meloni\u2019s conservative coalition on the right, four months after quitting Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini\u2019s League party.<\/p>\n

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Vannacci\u2019s populist movement is already polling at close to 5 per cent, closing in on the League and potentially clouding Meloni\u2019s hopes of regaining power in next year\u2019s national vote, unless she forges an electoral pact with him.<\/p>\n

However, such a tie-up would carry major risks for Meloni and potentially scare away moderate supporters deterred by Vannacci\u2019s anti-EU, pro-Russia agenda and his close ties to far-right European parties such as Germany\u2019s AfD.<\/p>\n

Positioning himself as the most hawkish voice on immigration in Italy, Vannacci said on Sunday he would slash the number of foreigners living in Italy to some 4 per cent of the total population from an estimated 12 per cent at present.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a program for immigration, we have a program for re-migration,\u201d he said to cheers.<\/p>\n

Unveiling its program at the weekend, Futuro Nazionale embraced many of the policies that Meloni had championed during her years in opposition, before she took charge of Italy\u2019s debt mountain in 2022 and had to reassure investors.<\/p>\n

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Vannacci said he wanted a discussion on Italy\u2019s membership of the euro single currency. He also proposed abandoning the EU\u2019s Green Deal aimed at drastically cutting carbon emissions, and ending Italy\u2019s ban on nuclear power.<\/p>\n

The program also backed incentives for families, including a cut in taxes for those with children.<\/p>\n

Though Italy has one of the lowest rates for murder and violent crime in the world, Vannacci said his first priority would be security and defence, vowing zero tolerance for criminals and promising to build more prisons.<\/p>\n

Vannacci has accused Meloni of reneging on many of her campaign pledges, but he acknowledged that his own program was not written in stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo plan survives the first shot in battle … it has to be adapted to reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Former Italian general Roberto Vannacci delivers his speech at the end of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4293,4283,4294,1188,4276,1557,147,4275,4288,4289,4285,4277,4274,1131,4292,1294,4287,201,4305,4278,4279,3297,5,4284,1815,1333,4295,4281,4300,4301,4303,4298,4302,4296,4299,4280,3867,4291,356,4290,4297,3869,1138,614,4286,4282,243,4304],"class_list":["post-24583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-italy","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}