Roberto Vannacci, a former paratrooper general who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, built his political rise on provocation. In 2023 his self-published book "The World Upside Down" attacked immigration, feminism and homosexuality, telling gay people: "You are not normal, get over it." He collected more than half a million votes standing for the anti-immigration League in the 2024 European elections and founded National Future in February.
His social media persona is a deliberate play to the "manosphere," according to analysts who study the far right. He has posted AI-generated images of himself as a Roman legionary and charioteer, declared he prefers women "without skirts," and shared an AI-generated image of junior minister Matilde Siracusano with exaggerated cleavage. "It is disgusting to think you can manipulate the image of a woman for such deplorable propaganda," Siracusano, a centre-right member of Meloni's coalition, told POLITICO.
The party calls its preferred social order "Mediterranean patriarchy." Its program promises to form "strong men" capable of controlling their emotions and passions, protecting women and sacrificing themselves for society. It opposes the recently introduced crime of femicide, condemns feminism, and declares the defense of life "from conception to natural death" and the "natural family" among its non-negotiable values. It proposes paying parents who leave work to raise children and rewarding parents of large families with tax exemption and public sector jobs, proposals that echo the fascist-era "Battle for Births" under Benito Mussolini. The program's principal author is Lorenzo Gasperini, a conservative Catholic philosophy teacher from Tuscany who has opposed vaccines and abortion rights and blamed feminism for violence against women.
Defenders say the label is misunderstood. National Future parliamentarian Emanuele Pozzolo, who defected from Meloni's Brothers of Italy, called the "without skirts" remark "extremely funny" and compared Vannacci's ability to connect with ordinary Italians to Silvio Berlusconi's. He said Mediterranean patriarchy is "exactly the opposite" of male supremacy: recovering, preserving and passing on "the responsibilities of being a man within the family and society," while rejecting violence or coercive control. Vannacci told a rally in Orvieto that the concept means "duty, fidelity, sacrifice," not "oppression and possession," and praised it as the family model that allowed "us to prevail over the last 2,000 years."
Critics are unconvinced. Elisa Ercoli, president of the women's rights organization Differenza Donna, condemned the program as "a return to the supremacy of the white, cisgender alpha male, and the woman as his handmaiden." Luca Sforzini, a former Vannacci ideologue who has broken with him, said the Mediterranean label was clever marketing that concealed a patriarchal model behind "bucolic, positive images."
Federica Formato, a lecturer at Brighton University who studies gender and the far right, said Vannacci is "testing the waters" to see whether he can reach a younger male audience, tapping into what she calls the "aggrieved entitlement" of young men. Polling analysis suggests about 62 percent of National Future's prospective voters are male, including strong support among manual workers and the unemployed. Pozzolo denied the party deliberately targets male voters, insisting it aims to reach Italians of all backgrounds who feel unrepresented.
The arithmetic makes Vannacci hard to ignore. With elections expected next spring, National Future polls at about 8 percent, drawing voters from Meloni's Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini's League. Italy's electoral law offers a parliamentary majority bonus to coalitions that win at least 42 percent of the vote, so his share could prove decisive. Vannacci has opened the door to an alliance with Meloni, describing National Future as a natural partner for the centre-right while insisting any deal must respect his party's principles. Meloni, Italy's first female prime minister, must now weigh whether he is an asset or a liability.