ROME, June 18 (Reuters) - Italy’s new far-right political force, Futuro Nazionale, has overtaken the more established League party for the first time, a survey by YouTrend pollster showed on Thursday. It caps weeks of steady gains for former army general Roberto Vannacci’s movement.
• Futuro Nazionale was seen at 5.9% against the League’s 5.8%, broadly in line with other recent surveys putting it at around 5% and showing a clear upward trend.
• Founded in February after Vannacci split from the League, part of Italy’s ruling coalition, along with a small group of lawmakers. Futuro Nazionale aims to supplant it as Italy’s leading far-right party.
• The group is outside the ruling coalition, but its rise at the League’s expense is complicating Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s bid to retain power at an election due next year.
• It remains unclear whether Meloni could strike an electoral pact with Vannacci. This week she accused him of fracturing the right and boosting the centre-left’s chances.
• “We get our best surveys when we’re out in the squares with Roberto Vannacci … let’s keep our feet on the ground and continue on our path,” Futuro Nazionale lawmaker Rossano Sasso told Reuters.
• The poll also confirmed Meloni’s Brothers of Italy as the country’s most popular party at 27.8%, followed by the main opposition Democratic Party (PD) at 22.2%.
(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
