The anti-Vannacci trolls are simply giving him more publicity

He is prevailing on two fronts: those who demonise him make him appear likable, and those who seek to investigate him are engaging in political manoeuvring not unlike Vannacci’s own tactics. Challenge him on the merits of his case, but beware of this new breed – the professional ‘anti-Vannacci’ activists, the Usigrai of reverse fascism. Who is the retired military officer who is hounding Vannacci with a barrage of complaints to the public prosecutor’s office and accusing him of wanting to rebuild a fascist party? He is a former marshal who deserves respect, but who has been involved in politics like Vannacci since 2000, and he too has faced disciplinary action, just like Vannacci, for public outbursts. Who is the former right-wing undersecretary who first joined Futuro Nazionale and now speaks of a ‘lack of humanity’? Did he perhaps think he was joining UNICEF? Are these the new ‘GAP’ militants who will stop him?

We can carry on, in no particular order. Who is this Vannacciano chap who now professes to be a liberal and is waging a battle against the ‘Black Baron’ Jonghi Lavarini, another colleague from s-Futuro Nazionale? A man who told Il Foglio: “Zelensky’s a cokehead – can’t you see how he snorts it? If I were Putin, I’d drop a nice little nuke on him’. His name is Luca Sforzini, another sensational character, who owns a castle in Pavia, has been a Freemason for thirty years, and has gone from Sgarbi’s Madonna with Child (he was also active in Sgarbi’s party) to Vannacci’s Carnival. Are these the new GAP militants who will stop him?

A certain group is proliferating which, under the pretext of silencing Vannacci, does nothing but seek the limelight, create confusion, generate publicity for itself, and make him even more pompous. Let’s start with the military figure who is securing interviews for himself and who legitimately aspires to the role of ‘anti-Vannacci’. His name is Mauro Comellini; he is the secretary of a national trade union which, it appears, is not registered on the Ministry of Defence’s register of military trade unions. Paradoxically – and it is a paradox – it is the members of that union who would risk disciplinary action. It seems that the members are other retired military personnel, and so no proceedings would be brought, but this is enough to debunk the newspaper headlines and interviews: ‘The military against Vannacci’. The military, but who exactly? Comellini himself has faced disciplinary proceedings, and there have even been parliamentary questions regarding his case – in his defence – because Comellini, a former soldier, was posting and expressing personal opinions on websites. Comellini even had his own party, as reported by old news agencies, called the PDM, the Party for the Protection of Military Rights. Admittedly, it was of a different nature, but it was still a ‘party’. It’s all perfectly lawful, but challenging Vannacci in the legal arena, brandishing the old Scelba Law, and imagining one can pin the label of ‘fascism’ on him only brings him fresh and fantastic publicity. And the same applies to his leaders, those military officers to whom he is said to have entrusted party roles. The more one looks for colonels plotting coups, à la Tognazzi, the more one ends up in the trap of the law, court rulings and the Council of State. The issue of Vannacci and his ilk has already been raised: can members of the armed forces join political parties? There is a ruling by the Council of State that says no, but the Regional Administrative Courts of Piedmont and Umbria have, in the past, deemed this to be legitimate.

Should a dispute arise, it would mark yet another trade union saga, akin to the Ranucci and Rai affair, and the outcome is anyone’s guess. Let us turn to the next, the latest (though one could name at least ten others, and the number is growing) professional opponent of Vannacchio. It is Luca Belotti, undersecretary of FdI, another who left the PDL for Fini’s Futuro e Libertà, returned to the PDL, left the PDL again and finally joined the FN. A few days ago, Belotti handed in his membership card, thus expanding the category of professionals to include the ‘repentant’. Belotti declared that ‘there is no humanity’, a remark that is notable given that for months Vannacci has been denying the existence of the crime of femicide, well before the programme by the philosopher Lorenzo Gasperini – his Giovanni Gentile. These are just a few episodes, but they illustrate a phenomenon as old as time: the art of outliving someone. Berlusconi had his ‘girotondini’, and Vannacci has his ‘anti-Vannacci’ professionals. They will probably be put forward as candidates by the parties that oppose the ‘scum General’, just as the PD has for years been fielding the former secretary of the CGIL, the virologist, and the demagogue ousted from RAI. They are actors in the same theatre but are improvising their roles; they think they are the new Parris but are in fact the puppets of the General, the ringmaster.