He hasn’t changed his mind, Roberto VannacciFrom interview to interview, from statement to statement, faithful over the centuries to his «non-politically correct» ideasruns towards the seat of Brussels (the League will nominate him in all the constituencies and he will be the leader in that of central Italy) airing his theses which make people wrinkle their noses when they are not completely disconcerting, from homosexuality to abortion, from the “statesman” Mussolini to racial integration to the idea of putting disabled people “in separate classes” (which sparked furious reactions, starting with that of the CEI: “We are returning to the dark years of history »).
It is no coincidence that for his literary debut, released in the summer of 2023, General Vannacci had chosen a very clear title: «The world upside down». He is faithful to this objective of describing a humanity, in his opinion, victim of wrong ideologies he continued his commitment which earned him several hundred thousand copies sold.
To review Vannacci’s thoughts, one cannot help but start from the current situation, a few days before April 25th. «I find that anti-fascism makes no sense. I don’t like being ‘anti’. And then fascism ended almost a hundred years ago. Are you anti-Napoleonic?” he asks the reporter rhetorically Press who interviews him. To then add: «I don’t see why it is necessary to equip ourselves with anti-fascist license to express one’s opinions. I also claim consideration for Mussolini, who is a statesman as were Cavour, Stalin and all the men who occupied state positions: he is the first definition of “statesman” in the dictionary.” To Aldo Cazzullo, on Courier, he had said: «They asked me a question point blank; whatever I answered would be used against me. If I praise Mussolini, I am a fascist. If I don’t praise him, I conceal my ideas…”. While fascism «ended eighty years ago. It would be like saying you were against ancient Rome or the Renaissance.”
The general is used to speaking freely, solid in his convictions even on issues in which consciences sometimes question themselves without having certain answers. Of abortion, for example, he says that it is an “unfortunate necessity to which women are forced to resort. I don’t think it’s a right. All alternative solutions must be found that can push the woman not to have an abortion.” From his point of view, the presence of pro-life associations in the clinics as desired by the government is right.
The strongest words, in the book as in the various publications, concern homosexuality. «Dear homosexuals, you are not normal, get over it!», gay prides are dominated by “obscenities, extravagance, blasphemy and turpitude”, some phrases contained in the best seller. He told the Corriere: «They have never found the genome of homosexuality; and social conditioning is important. I find the massive exposure of homosexual models towards children inappropriate. I searched online: according to the British Statistical Institute, non-heterosexuals make up around 3.4% of the population. Do you think the percentage is respected on television? Why don’t they approve a series on Netflix if there are no homosexual scenes?”.
In the book he was even clearer: «We have to resort to a foreign language and call them gay because the words exist until a few years ago in dictionaries they were considered inappropriate, if not vulgar and offensive. Pederast, invert, sodomite, fagot, faggot, rich guy, buliccio, femminiello, bardassa, caghineri, cupio, buggerone, faggot, homophile, uranist, culattone are now terms used by the courts, by hate speech, by incitement to hatred and discrimination and classified by the very popular multimedia encyclopedia Wikipedia as a lexicon of homophobia”.
TO A day as a sheep he told an anecdote: «I had a black girl, mulatto, many years ago, we were in Europe but we won’t go into details. She wasn’t Italian but I have nothing against people of different ethnicities. We had a fling for a month, and then I broke up with her. The reason? I’m quite heavy…”.
And then there is the theme of the relationship with people of color, even bringing up champions like Paolo Egonu (who sued him): «Even though she is an Italian by citizenship, it is clear that her somatic features do not represent her Italian identity». Oh yes, because skin color makes a difference for Vannacci. He exemplifies this with the memory of his curiosity in 1975 in Paris for people of color: «In the subway, I pretended to lose my balance to accidentally place my hand on theirs, to understand if their skin was more or less hard and wrinkled to the touch than ours.”
There is no shortage of school in the candidate general’s attentions. In particular, net of the desire to see more severe public schools, Vannacci hopes for separate classes for disabled people: «I believe that classes with “separate characteristics” would help kids with great potential to express themselves to the fullest, and even those with more difficulties would be helped in a special way. It is not discriminatory. For students with problems I rely on specialists.” And just to help you understand the concept, here’s an example: «I certainly wouldn’t put a disabled person to run with someone who breaks the one hundred meter record.”
Reactions were unleashed on this last point. Emblematic, for all, that of the group leader of Forza Italia deputies Paolo Barelli: «To attract forced attention with effective shots you can achieve the result to utter real nonsense. This seems to have happened to General Vannacci when talking about disability and diversity; instead serious topics that touch the intimate sensitivity of everyone to which respect and understanding must be dedicated. ruminations that are less intellectual and more Captain Fracassa-like and which were not really needed».
