Roberto Vannacci should leave the League in the next few hours. This would be the outcome of the meeting with Matteo Salvini yesterday, according to what several party sources confirmed following the press leaks. And, again yesterday afternoon, Salvini apparently decided to convene, today at 4pm, an unscheduled meeting of the party’s federal council with some points on the agenda that had actually already been discussed in other meetings. Speaking with some managers in the last few hours, the Northern League secretary – it is reported – was clear on the line to take with the general. Either inside or outside, enough ambiguity, would have been the meaning of the reasoning of the boss of Via Bellerio. Last week, Vannacci registered a new symbol, ‘National Future’, the possible formation with which he could run for office.
«I haven’t seen the federal council meeting yet, but I’m in Brussels tomorrow. I’ll see if I can connect.” Thus just yesterday the deputy secretary of the League and MEP Roberto Vannacci, interviewed by ANSA, responded regarding the meeting called for this afternoon by the leader Matteo Salvini at the party headquarters in Milan.
And a few hours later comes the indiscretion according to which the announcement of the general’s exit from the party is ready, an announcement that Salvini himself would be ready to make already in the afternoon.
Durigon’s words in an interview given to Il Giornale therefore seem to have been of no avail. “I count” on Vannacci “remaining in the League, without ifs or buts, because all the alternative options are a gift to the left and therefore a damage for Italy”, the undersecretary had hoped. The deputy secretary of the Northern League does not launch appeals: «Being part of the League is an honor, I have too much respect for our history and for our militants to launch appeals – he says -. In the League everyone is important but no one is indispensable: the general knows very well that the first fans of his farewell are the left-wing media. And a man like him wouldn’t give gifts to Schlein, Renzi or Conte. A brave patriot like him already has a home: the League. He doesn’t need makeshift bushes.” To a question about whether he fears that the 1-2% that he is awarded at an electoral level could cause the center-right to lose in the next elections: “No – he replies – we are talking about a theoretical 1-2%, when we go to the polls the votes polarise”. And if he wants to send a message to Vannacci: «confusing and ambiguous messages are not good for anyone – he says – I hope he continues to commit himself to the League, also because between the security package and the battles with the European patriots we are achieving results».
The symbol of “Futuro Nazionale” and the controversy with “Nazione Futura”
From the first ‘catwalks’ together, to the stamped papers. Meanwhile, the relationship between Roberto Vannacci and Nazione Futura, the association of conservatives close to the centre-right and among the first to host the author of “The World in Reverse” in Rome in 2023, has degenerated. Now the conservatives are challenging the “Futuro Nazionale” symbol deposited by the former paratrooper promoted to deputy secretary of the League, because it is too similar to theirs and therefore risks confusion. So on the one hand, Nazione Futura has presented a formal opposition to the European Patent Office to block the trademark. The response is expected within three months. Vannacci’s response was in tune and inspired by the fascist motto: “I don’t care”, wrote the MEP on social media. The conservatives offer him chamomile tea to calm him down. And they accuse him of playing “the left’s game” by attacking the Northern League and the coalition from within. Thus the harmony that began between the two a few years ago is broken. «His book had just been released and on 14 September 2023 we invited him to Rome, it was the first presentation at a national level», recalls Francesco Giubilei who leads the association. Other exchanges and meetings followed. Until the break on the symbol. The two logos have colors in common: a blue background and the Tricolor on a sort of wing, which is more stylized for Vannacci and more linear for the conservatives. And the names, which seem to invert you. For the board of Nazione Futura, the Vannacciano logo can «generate confusion in the public, especially if the signs are identical or highly similar and cover overlapping areas of activity». Hence the request for a stop. For the Northern League member, it is “a silly and unfounded symbolic diatribe” aimed at increasing the membership of the conservatives. And he concludes provocatively with “Fear makes 90!”. Same slogan that Vannacci uses to deny alleged flirtations with the disappointed M5s, worried – according to a reconstruction by the newspaper Il Giornale – of not losing their seats in the next elections. “Only Ilaria Salis, Mimmo Lucano and Sumahoro are missing. After Renzi, now also the M5s. At this rate Angelucci’s newspapers will tell us that, in my entirely hypothetical new party, I am ready to take Luxuria as spokesperson, Ilaria Salis as security manager and Mimmo Lucano as treasurer. Sumahoro would naturally be Minister of Agriculture.”
The shadow of the new party
Similarities aside, it is the shadow of a new party (which Vannacci today defines as “all hypothetical”) that still weighs on the centre-right and on the League. The meeting with Matteo Salvini remains on standby. “It will take place, but with what is happening in Italy it is the last thing that matters”, the secretary evades. And he thus defuses the controversy: “In the League there is room for everyone: Vannacci, Zaia, Giorgetti”. Meanwhile the leaders of the League are meeting party in Milan for the federal council. The priorities are the security package and the demonstration on 18 April, a topic very dear to Vannacci.
Remigration: “There is no duty to welcome”
In another post Vannacci insists on the remigration he defends, citing article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: «1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. 2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his own country.” And he concludes: «There is no duty to welcome; every human being on this earth has their own country: we are not children of the earth and of humanity; facilitating and inducing repatriation to one’s country means promoting the charter of human rights”.