Rome inquiry follows a complaint from the Military Union and reports linking party leader Roberto Vannacci to Russian influence operations.
Rome’s military prosecutors said on Thursday they had opened preliminary checks into the presence of serving members of Italy’s armed forces within National Future (FN), the far-right party led by general-turned-politician Roberto Vannacci.
The complaint and the inquiry
The Rome Military Prosecutor’s Office said it had acted on a complaint filed on Wednesday by the Military Union concerning the status of armed forces personnel involved with FN. In a statement, the office said that, partly in light of reports carried by authoritative foreign press outlets, it had launched preliminary investigations to establish whether any facts falling strictly within its jurisdiction exist regarding individuals subject to military law.
Those foreign reports include an analysis by the European Council on Foreign Relations, cited by the Financial Times on Wednesday, which described Vannacci as a Trojan horse for Russian influence inside Italy.
A party surging in the polls
FN has been climbing rapidly in opinion polls, now standing at just over 7%, on a platform that includes so-called “remigration” — a policy that would extend to legal immigrants deemed to have failed to integrate into Italian culture — alongside tougher measures against migrant crime and the deportation of offenders convicted of it.
The party’s programme also includes boosting what it calls family values and reducing abortions, financial incentives for having more children, a ban on gender theory being taught in schools, allowing 14-year-olds to take up jobs, introducing military training in schools, restricting LGBT content on television until after 11pm, and pursuing closer ties with Moscow once the war in Ukraine has ended.
From bestselling author to party leader
Vannacci, a former paratroop general with past deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, first rose to prominence on the strength of a bestselling anti-woke book. He went on to become deputy leader of the right-wing League before breaking away to found FN, which has recently overtaken the League itself in national polling.
On Wednesday night, Vannacci said his party shared a natural affinity with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI), and signalled he would back a potential future bid by Meloni to become President of Italy. FN is not currently part of Meloni’s governing alliance, but Vannacci is widely expected to align the party with it after next year’s general election, a move that would strengthen Meloni’s re-election prospects against a divided centre-left opposition.
