Roberto Vannacci continues to be talked about. Northern League secretary Matteo Salvini locks him up, announcing that he will have him at his side in Rome, at the official release of the book ‘Controvento’. Since his candidacy was made official, the general has remained in the political arena. First the brawl over the day chosen for the announcement, April 25, followed by the internal party diatribe, still ongoing. Then Vannacci’s unfortunate phrases to La Stampa, on separate classes for disabled people and that “statesman” Benito Mussolini, which also triggered the firm distancing of Northern League ministers.
For his part, Vannacci dismissed everything as ‘wrangles’ in the League. “Giorgetti? Internal party disputes that I consider more than legitimate but that don’t interest me. Let’s let the citizens express themselves, that’s what counts”, the response to Affari Italiani. The general, now praised as an independent candidate by the Captain, expects real legitimacy at the polls. “It is normal for those who have been active in a party for many years to view with skepticism a person who, from one day to the next, joins it even with a lot of consensus and ‘is seen as a usurper'”, he stated on Hoara’s YouTube channel Borselli, reiterating that in the end it will be “the voters who write the name on the ballot and decide who was right”.
So Vannacci carries on through the storm that has shaken the League and the centre-right. There were moments of embarrassment among the allies. And it was from the stage in Pescara – at the FdI event ‘snubbed’ by Salvini – that a jab came from the second-largest state official, Ignazio La Russa: “Good for him that he doesn’t have a handicapped child, otherwise he would understand that he had said nonsense.” Loud applause from the audience. The Forzista and vice president of the Chamber Giorgio Mulè took things further: “General Vannacci said solemn nonsense, which was also seriously offensive”, Mulè told Sky tg24, comparing the sentences to those of the far-right German party Afd on disabled people at school, “completely comparable to those of Vannacci”.
Vannacci is not spared even by the outgoing MEP – listmate – Susanna Ceccardi, in total disagreement with him. Or from the League of Friuli Venezia Giulia and that of Veneto, who join the chorus of those who will not “vote” for the candidate chosen by Salvini. Vannacci, like his secretary, doesn’t care about criticism. And they look forward to Tuesday, when they will be in Rome, next to each other, for the release of Salvini’s book, “Controvento”. Meanwhile, the general traces the line of his race, against the imposition of “a single thought” and promoting the “Italian dream instead of the American one”.
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