Calderone switches from FI to Vannacci. In July he said: “No to a pardon for Roggero. He killed in Corleone style.”

“Futuro nazionale cresce”: this is the title of the conference at which Tommaso Calderone, a Forza Italia MP, will tomorrow be officially welcomed into the ranks of the Vannacchians. The MP, who is vice-chair of the Chamber of Deputies’ Justice Committee, announced today that he is joining the General’s party.

What has left many observers perplexed is not so much Calderone’s change of allegiance as the apparent incompatibility of some of his positions with those vociferously championed by Futuro Nazionale. The most obvious example is one of the high-profile cases of recent months: the conviction of the jeweller Mario Roggero. Indeed, in the pages of Il Foglio itself, Calderone expressed himself very clearly on the verdict, going against the majority view. “Roggero killed two robbers who were fleeing, in Corleonese style, when neither he nor his family were in the slightest danger,” the MP stated just two months ago, “if we are to speak in legal terms, that is a case of double voluntary manslaughter, which has absolutely nothing to do – not even remotely – with self-defence”. Calderone, who has 35 years’ experience as a criminal lawyer, described the Meloni government’s “attack on the judiciary” as “completely out of place” in the interview, whilst emphasising that he had been “at the forefront of the campaign for the separation of judicial careers”.

The position of Futuro Nazionale and its leader on this issue is radically different. Although Vannacci, unlike the Lega, has not expressed a desire to put Roggero forward as a candidate, he had no qualms about posting a video on his Instagram account – created using AI – in which (dressed in his much-loved Roman centurion’s uniform) he interceded with Mattarella to secure a pardon for the jeweller. In the wake of the incident, the general also launched a nationwide campaign in support of self-defence, stating that “For us, defence is always legitimate”.

On this point too, Calderone expressed a completely different view, stating his opposition to any amendment to the law on self-defence: “The risk must always be imminent and the reaction proportionate; otherwise, it becomes the Wild West”. The MP also described the petition organised by the group leaders of all the majority parties to seek a pardon for Roggero as “an absolute affront to the President of the Republic”.