Roberto Vannacci, the former Italian army general and full-time provocateur, turned up on the shores of Lake Como by himself with no aides or handlers, hoping for an audience. An audience he got.
The insurgent ultranationalist engaged the swarms of journalists for as long as they had questions. Such was the interest in the “Vannacci show” that event organizers had to move him out onto the splendid lakeside gardens of the Villa d’Este hotel, to ensure attendees to the annual gathering of Italy’s political and business elites could make their next panel.
His appearance at the Ambrosetti Forum, in itself the subject of criticism from those worried about another extremist’s integration into the European mainstream, caps a dizzying rise from obscurity, though one that leaves him polling under 10%.
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