Vannacci’s party in Calabria lashes out against chemtrails. But then deletes the post

For a moment, it appeared that chemtrails were poised to return to the Italian public debate (and we had certainly missed them). In a post published this morning, the Calabrian branch of Futuro Nazionale, coordinated by Domenico Furgiuele, sounded the alarm, denouncing the presence of “white streaks that linger for hours, spread out, criss-cross, and turn into a milky haze that obscures the sun”, and concluding: “These are not the clouds we remember from our childhood”. Unless the author of the post spent their childhood between the 1910s and 1920s, it is worth noting that aircraft contrails – ‘chemtrails’ is a non-scientific term referring to the conspiracy theory that they contain harmful substances – have existed in our skies ever since aeroplanes first took to the air. There are vintage photographs to confirm this, and the reason why we see more of them today than in the 1970s is that air traffic has increased, as well as the fact that aeroplanes fly at higher altitudes, where the temperature is lower and condensation is therefore more frequent. 

“They tell us they’re just contrails,” the post continues. “They tell us not to worry. But in the meantime, our skies are changing shape every day, and no one is really explaining why.” No one apart from the entire scientific community, of course, which, as already mentioned, has provided a clear and precise explanation of the phenomenon. 

Almost twenty years on from the Five Star Movement’s first outbursts – when the Genoese comedian was still at the helm of the M5S and some of its MPs claimed that mermaids existed or that the moon landing had been a ‘hoax’ – it seems we are witnessing a now almost recurring process: a party born out of a charismatic figure gathers activists from all over the country in a somewhat haphazard manner, and struggles to bring their ideas into line. And so, on a cold autumn morning, the Instagram profile of Futuro Nazionale Calabria (a verified account) once again puts forward, on behalf of a party represented in parliament, this curious theory – in Italian that sounds much like it did twenty years ago: “Look up. It’s not the sky it used to be. They want to interfere with the climate, the sky, the rain, and the sun that shines down on us.” 

Hoping that the sun won’t shine on us for many years to come, someone at the top of the party must have decided that a post against chemtrails would not help the FN’s image at national level and requested that this strong stance be censored. Conspiracy upon conspiracy, one is almost tempted to wonder whether General Vannacci might know something about these chemtrails and, if so, why on earth he wants to keep us in the dark about it.