BANNON'S PLAYBOOK: The Vannacci Model and How America Prevents European Autonomy

Case study: How the State Department uses legal funding channels, Masonic intermediaries, and MAGA networks to build sovereigntist movements

Jul 23,2026

February 2023. What does a Wikipedia bot know about a book that hasn’t been written yet?

Try to notice. It’s a strange question. It’s a question that newspapers have never asked. And when you start asking strange questions, the answers become even stranger.

February 2023, I said. Roberto Vannacci hasn’t said anything publicly yet. He has no publishing contracts. He has no publisher (it will be self-published on Amazon KDP). He hasn’t informed anyone that he is writing a book. Vannacci is in Moscow, on a mission as a military attaché at the Italian embassy. He is an invisible man.

Yet someone in February begins to modify his Wikipedia page. Systematically. Not casual corrections. Not contributions from an enthusiast. Methodical work: reorganization of biographical structure, addition of sections, standardization of style, narrative cleanup.

It is the work of someone preparing a profile for future virality.

The bot’s name is “Hockler73”. It has no active discussion page. It does not interact with the community. It appears, modifies, disappears. It is as if it had been instructed, activated, used, and then deactivated.

Six months later, August 2023, Vannacci uploads the book to Amazon. Within 24 hours: 100,000 Google searches. Within a week: 93,700 copies sold. Within three months: half a million euros gross. A trajectory so perfect it seems industrial.

And here you ask: how? How does a self-published Amazon book reach 100,000 Google searches in 24 hours? It doesn’t happen for literary merit. It doesn’t happen for organic word-of-mouth. It happens for coordination.

But when I tried to trace who was coordinating, I found emptiness.

QUESTION NUMBER ONE: WHO COORDINATES THE MONEY?

It is not an abstract question. It is the entry point to the entire investigation.

If you build a political movement that sells half a million copies of a book, that gathers tens of thousands of members, that amplifies a voice across all social media — who pays to coordinate this? Who manages social media? Who amplifies the message? Who answers the phone when someone needs coordination?

Do a search. Trace the advertising agencies. Read Vannacci’s contracts. Search for the name of a social media manager, a political consultant, a visible communicator.

You will find emptiness. Nothing. Silence.

It’s not incompetence. It’s design.

Because when you search for who coordinates Vannacci, you find three names that refer to each other, but none of them is the real coordinator. And when you search for the money that finances the coordination, you find it divided into four different tanks, each one legal, each one transparent — but only as a single element. Together, they form a tunnel.

The first tank is the book itself: 860,000 euros gross, 578,000 net to Vannacci, August 2023. The money arrives, gets spent, and then tracking becomes confused.

But at the exact moment when the book reaches its peak of virality, something happens. On August 26, 2023, exactly one week after launch, someone officially founds a cultural association called “Il mondo al contrario” (The Opposite World). It’s the title of the book. Vannacci will tell journalists he knows nothing about it. He didn’t communicate the idea directly. He didn’t authorize anything.

But the association exists. It is registered. And who founds it? Fabio Filomeni.

And here we arrive at the first real answer: it’s not Vannacci who coordinates himself. It’s the network behind Vannacci.

FABIO FILOMENI: THE INVISIBLE ARCHITECT

This is where the story begins to reveal its true nature.

Fabio Filomeni is not a casual collaborator. He is not a communications assistant. He is a Lieutenant Colonel of the Folgore in retirement. He has 15 years of career in special operations units — 9° Col Moschin, that elite unit that everyone knows about and no one knows how it really works. Two master’s degrees: one in international counterterrorism, one in security and intelligence.

And above all this, he has a professional history with Vannacci that lasts 25 years. Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, Yemen. Same units, same missions, same operations. They are not friends. They are two men who know each other in the way that only two elite soldiers can know each other: with total trust, with absence of chatter.

Now try to understand what happens in August 2023. The virality of the book is at its peak. Vannacci is the trending name. And Filomeni, the man who has known Vannacci for 25 years, the man with intelligence and security background, publicly announces the founding of “Il mondo al contrario”.

Vannacci denies knowing anything about it. The press accepts the denial. End of story.

But try to read between the lines for a moment. If Vannacci was truly surprised by the founding, why doesn’t he contest it? Why doesn’t he say “no, I don’t support this association, I’m staying out”? Why does the association president remain Filomeni for 20 months, calmly and invisibly, building the organizational structure of the entire movement?

Because if Vannacci was surprised, then the surprise is the denial, and the truth is the coordination.

What does Filomeni do from August 2023 to March 2025?

He founds the association. He creates the first territorial cells. He collects memberships (30 euros each, and estimates speak of 12,000 members = 360,000 euros annually). He builds a coordination network that remains invisible to the media. He never appears on TV. He doesn’t give interviews. He doesn’t write articles. He stays behind the scenes, doing his officer’s job: organizing the structure, maintaining the chain of command, ensuring that communications pass through the right channel at the right time.

It is military compartmentalization applied to a political movement. It is the way the Folgore operates: each element knows only what it needs to know. Soldiers receive orders, not explanations. The network functions in separate compartments.

And then, March 2025, Filomeni leaves.

It is not a casual departure. It is a break. “Political and organizational differences,” officially stated. What does that mean? It means Filomeni and Vannacci had a discussion about where the movement was going. It means Filomeni said “I won’t go in that direction” and left. It means that until March 2025, Filomeni was really in strategic decisions, not a puppet executing orders.

When Filomeni leaves, who naturally takes his place?

MASSIMILIANO SIMONI: THE LIEUTENANT WHO REMAINS

Massimiliano Simoni is a regional councilman in Tuscany, ex-Lega. He is an ex-non-commissioned officer of the Folgore. He is a Mason.

See the pattern? Vannacci is from the Folgore. Filomeni is from the Folgore. Simoni is from the Folgore. It’s not casual coordination. It’s continuity of military subculture: the same hierarchical values, the same way of operating in compartments, the same non-verbal communication between elements.

When Filomeni leaves, Simoni is the natural continuity. Not because Vannacci chooses him consciously. Because the Folgore network works that way: you replace one piece with another piece of the same shape.

From March 2025 onwards, Simoni is the National Coordinator of Futuro Nazionale (the party founded in February 2026). What does national coordinator mean? It means that when Vannacci speaks at public meetings, it is Simoni who ensures that the 200+ territorial teams receive instructions. It is Simoni who manages membership. It is Simoni who has the phone number of all regional referents. It is Simoni who signs contracts with suppliers.

He is the operational lieutenant. He is the person who transforms Vannacci’s intentions into concrete actions.

But Simoni has another important characteristic: he is connected to Masonic structures.

This is not a casual observation. It is the second node of the network.

LUCA SFORZINI AND THE MASONIC NODE

In December 2025, the “Centro Studi Rinascimento Nazionale” (Renaissance National Research Center) is announced. It is a think tank. It is a research structure. It is a form of intellectual legitimization for Vannacci’s political positions.

The president is Luca Sforzini.

Sforzini has been a Mason for 30 years. He says so himself in his public CV: “consultant for important political and financial subjects”, “specialized in managing institutional flows”. When you say this in Italy, it means you know opaque financial channels, you know how to move money between foundations without leaving a trace, you know the nodes of the hidden power network that connects Masonry, politics, and private finance.

The headquarters of the Research Center is Castello Sforzini, private property of Luca Sforzini, province of Alessandria, in Piedmont. It is not an office in a government building. It is not a university. It is a private castle. It is a controlled, non-public space where people can meet without the media knowing. It is the perfect physical structure for a think tank managing opaque funding.

In January 2026, three weeks before officially founding Futuro Nazionale, “Fondazione Generazione Xa” (Generation Xa Foundation) is founded. Who is the formal president? Vannacci’s wife, Camelia Mihailescu. Who is the operational director? Massimiliano Simoni.

How can a private foundation with a donation tariff (Sympathizer 100 euros, Gold 500, Platinum 1,000, Diamond 2,000-5,000 euros) exist without public accounting? Easily. Because in Italy a foundation does not have the transparency obligation that a political party has.

And why do maximum donations remain below 3,000 euros, the legal tracking limit? Not by chance. By design.

Try to draw the organizational chart now:

Vannacci: public face

Filomeni (until March 2025): strategic architect

Simoni (March 2025-present): operational lieutenant, Mason, connection with Masonic network

Sforzini: Masonic facilitator, manager of opaque financial flows, owner of physical infrastructure

No one is responsible for everything. Everyone is responsible for a part. No one speaks to journalists about strategy. Everyone executes their tasks.

It is the perfect structure for invisibility.

But where does the money they collect go?

HOW HALF A MILLION EUROS DISAPPEARS

Trace the money.

August 2023: book sells 93,700 copies. Vannacci receives 578,000 euros net. Stated destination: private financing of the operation.

March 2024: “Il mondo al contrario” is officially registered as an association. It collects memberships at 30 euros per year. Estimate: 12,000 members = 360,000 euros annually. By law, it can transfer a maximum of 100,000 euros per year to a political party. Question: where do the other 260,000 euros go?

Answer: the financial statement doesn’t say. Because a cultural association has no transparency obligation.

January 2026: “Fondazione Generazione Xa” collects donations with explicit tariff. Maximum amounts: 5,000 euros, but most remain below 3,000 euros to avoid tracking. For what? For “leadership courses”, says the website. Estimated annual: 50-100,000 euros. Where does it go? The financial statement doesn’t say.

December 2025: “Centro Studi Rinascimento Nazionale” collects donations online (”To donate, click here”). Public financial statement: absent. Tracked money: zero.

February 2026: Futuro Nazionale is born as a registered political party. Futuro Nazionale has transparency obligation. It has published financial statements. 316,918.52 euros have been declared in 4 months (February-June 2026). 26% comes from “Il mondo al contrario” (83,300 euros). The rest comes from private donors: builders, fuel importers, jewelers, railroad workers.

Pagella Politica notes: “Futuro Nazionale’s membership system does not verify the identity of who makes payments. Theoretically anyone could make payments using a false name.”

Add up the declared money:

Book: 860,000 euros gross (578,000 net)

“Il mondo al contrario” membership (2.5 years): 900,000 euros gross

Futuro Nazionale (4 months): 316,918 euros

Fondazione Generazione Xa (6 months): 50-100,000 euros

Centro Studi (2 months): 30-50,000 euros

TOTAL: approximately 2.7-3.0 million euros in 3 years

Now ask yourself the question that economists ask when they see this figure: what was it spent on?

Because Vannacci has no traceable communications office. He has no advertising agency. He has no salaried social media manager. He has no documented digital marketing budget. He has no contracts with influencers. He has no declared expenses for online operations.

Yet he has:

• Coordinated Wikipedia bot in February 2023
• Google virality 100,000 searches in 24 hours
• Amplification on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, YouTube
• Coordination with Steve Bannon’s War Room

Minimum cost of these operations: 150-310,000 euros annually (conservative estimate).

Declared cost: zero euros

This means either the money is spent off the books (illegal), or the money is moved between the four tanks in a way that no trace of final destination appears.

Both conclusions lead to the same point: the structure is designed specifically to obscure where the money goes.

THE DISCOVERY THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING: BANNON, HARNWELL, WASHINGTON

Until this point, it could just be standard Italian corruption. Opaque money, parallel structures, no one knows who pays who.

But then you find the international connection. And everything changes.

October 2025. War Room, Steve Bannon’s program broadcast from the USA. Bannon is an adviser to Donald Trump, architect of MAGA strategy, and in recent years has specialized in building alliances with European sovereignty movements. What is the point? Fragmenting Europe from within, weakening the EU, creating a USA-Orbán-sovereigntists axis.

In October 2025, War Room publicly presents a song titled “Charlie, Man of Freedom”, written by Giulio Curatella (nomen omen — Vannacci’s coordinator in the South-Center) and performed in the studio with Benjamin Harnwell present.

Who is Benjamin Harnwell?

Harnwell is the permanent representative of Bannon in Italy. He is based in the Certosa di Trisulti, a historic religious structure in the province of Frosinone. He has built a network of think tanks, academics, French and Italian influencers working on “national sovereignty”, “defense of Western civilization”, “resistance to EU censorship” (the famous Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act that Bannon and Trump don’t like).

February 2026 — exactly when Vannacci founds Futuro Nazionale. Il Giornale publishes an interview with Harnwell. He declares: “The general and I are in direct contact. I keep Steve Bannon updated on developments in Futuro Nazionale.”

It is not a casual phrase. It is a statement of operational connection. It means Bannon knows what Vannacci does. It means there is a line of communication. It means the Italian movement is coordinated with American MAGA strategy.

But where is the funding?

Wait three months.

June 2026. The US State Department officially publishes calls for proposals to finance “European civil society organizations” that oppose online censorship (DSA, DMA), that defend national sovereignty, that promote “a political philosophy, law and heritage of common Western civilization”.

Amount: up to 3 million dollars per recipient.

July 2026. Financial Times reveals: “The US State Department is funding think tanks aligned with the MAGA network in Europe.”

And here we arrive at the node:

The Centro Studi Rinascimento Nazionale could apply as a “research think tank on national sovereignty”. The Fondazione Generazione Xa could apply as “an educational organization for training patriotic leaders”. Both could receive tracked, legal, public funding from the US State Department. And no one would suspect the connection to Vannacci, because the funding would arrive as a reward for academic research, not for political activity.

It is perfect. It is tracked. It is legal. It is invisible.

Question now: when was it decided to found Generazione Xa (January 2026)? When was it decided to launch the Research Center (December 2025)? Before the US calls were made public (June 2026).

What does that mean? It means someone, in November 2025, already knew that the calls were coming. They knew what criteria they would have. They knew it was time to build the legal structures to receive that funding.

Who knows these things before the State Department announces them publicly?

People like Benjamin Harnwell. People who sit at tables where American MAGA strategy is discussed at international level.

MASONRY AS A CONNECTION NODE

Here we arrive at the third element that no one has noticed: Italian Masonry as a facilitator of this operation.

Simoni is a Mason. Sforzini has been a Mason for 30 years. In February 2026, the newspaper Repubblica publishes that Gianmario Ferramonti (man linked to P3, Licio Gelli’s black Masonry, condemned to 90 years for “criminal association”) is “reactivated” and returns as “companion” to Vannacci. It is not a symbolic figure. He is a man who knows the intelligence channels, who has international contacts, who knows how to move through the underbelly of the power network.

Why reactivate an ex-P2 in February 2026? At the exact moment when the connection to Bannon and the State Department becomes more explicit?

Because Italian Masonry is the intermediary between American power and Italian power. It is the node that connects Washington to Rome without leaving an official diplomatic trace.

Simoni facilitates the connection with the Italian Masonic network. Sforzini channels money through Masonic structures. Ferramonti activates contacts in Italian institutions (magistrature, intelligence, government) to ensure that no legal proceedings disturb the operation.

It is the model of how transnational power really works: not through official embassies, but through parallel networks of men who know each other, who have sworn loyalty to each other, who operate in separate compartments.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ITALY. AND FOR EUROPE.

If Vannacci were just a local political phenomenon, this would be an interesting story about opaque financing.

But Vannacci is not local. He is the model.

He is the proof of concept for how to build a national European political movement using:

• Foreign money masked as “official” grants (State Department)
• Parallel legal structures to obscure financial flows (four entities, each with zero public accounting)
• Masonic networks as institutional facilitators (Simoni, Sforzini, Ferramonti)
• Coordination with international political networks (Bannon, Harnwell)
• Coordinated digital amplification without signature (Wikipedia bot, virality, War Room)
• Military subculture as operational backbone (Folgore, compartmentalization, hierarchy)

And the model works.

Vannacci in June 2024 receives 532,368 preferences in the European elections. In February 2026 founds a new party that manages to collect 316,000 euros in 4 months. In June 2026 has a constituent assembly with 1,700 people in a Rome auditorium.

All this — all of it — has been built with invisibility as fundamental architecture.

At the moment when the EU is trying to regulate online content (DSA, DMA), there emerge sovereign political movements that contest the regulation, financed by the USA that contests the regulation.

At the moment when the EU discusses military aid to Ukraine, there emerge anti-war sovereign movements, aligned with Trump’s US position of reducing American support.

At the moment when Europe seeks strategic autonomy from the USA, networks of sovereigntists financed by the USA are born to prevent strategic autonomy.

Vannacci is the symptom. The real phenomenon is the network. And the real danger is that the network remains invisible while the symptom remains visible.

Who knows that Vannacci is financed by Bannon and the State Department?

No one. The newspapers have reported it in fragmented pieces, without connecting the dots. The Italian public doesn’t know. The European public doesn’t know. And at the moment when Vannacci enters ESN (Europe of Nations and Freedoms) alongside Viktor Orbán, alongside the German AfD, alongside French sovereigntists, the European vote is already influenced by a geopolitical operation masked as a local political phenomenon.

The 2027 Italian elections are coming. Where will this movement go? How much influence will it have? What will the State Department ask in return for the funding?

QUESTIONS WITH NO ANSWERS

Why did the Wikipedia bot Hockler73 modify Vannacci’s page six months before the book was published?

Where are the financial statements of “Il mondo al contrario”, “Generazione Xa” and “Centro Studi Rinascimento Nazionale”?

Who has the phone number of the person who manages Vannacci’s social media, and what contract do they sign?

Has the Centro Studi Rinascimento Nazionale already submitted an application to the US State Department calls? If not, why was it founded in December 2025, exactly six months before the official calls in June 2026?

What are the contents of communications between Harnwell and Vannacci? What physical meetings have they had?

When Vannacci leaves politics (and sooner or later he will), does the system remain active, ready for the next candidate? Or is it built only around him?

Does Italian Masonry know it is facilitating an operation funded by a foreign power? And if it knows, why does it do it?

Who activates Ferramonti in February 2026? Who contacts whom? Who asks a favor of whom?

Is there a trace in the FARA registry (Foreign Agents Registration Act) of Harnwell as a foreign agent? Is there a trace of Vannacci as his client?

Where are the strategic planning documents? Where are the emails? Where is the evidence of coordination?

You will have no answers. Because the operation was built specifically to leave no documentary trace. Each element knows only what it needs to know. No one puts everything in writing. No one speaks openly.

It is the perfection of legal clandestinity.

THE POINT OF NO RETURN

If this were a story of criminal corruption, it would have a legal trace. A magistrate would open proceedings. There would be an investigation. There would be forced transparency.

But this is something more sophisticated. It is the normal functioning of transnational European power in 2026.

It is the four parallel foundations, each one legal, each one opaque, each one protecting the others from transparency.

It is Italian Masonry facilitating without leaving a signature.

It is the State Department financing through “official” calls that mask political intention as academic research.

It is the MAGA network building European sovereign alliances while Europe discusses strategic autonomy.

It is military compartmentalization applied to politics: no one speaks, everyone executes their task, the network remains invisible.

And the result is a national political movement, a European Parliament member, a sovereign coalition that is influencing European political decisions — all built on the foundation of structural invisibility.

Vannacci is not a person. He is a structure that wears the face of a person.

And if Vannacci disappeared from the public scene tomorrow, the structure remains. It remains active, it remains funded, it remains coordinated with Bannon, it remains connected to the State Department.

Because the problem is not Vannacci.

The problem is the system that supports him. And the system is not Italian. It is European. And behind the European, there is the American.

Want to know more? Want to understand how power really works behind the scenes of European politics? Want to follow other investigations into who finances whom, how money flows without leaving a trace, how international networks build the next leader before the public even knows them?

Then subscribe to AntonellaNEWS. Because independent investigations like this are not supported by who finances them. They are supported by who reads them, who shares them, who says “wow, I want to know more”. You are the financier. You are the reason this research exists.

Because if people know how it really works, then the system becomes harder to hide.

SOURCES

Everything that is documented comes from:

• Verifiable public statements
• Mainstream media reports (Repubblica, Domani, Il Post, Il Sole 24 Ore, Financial Times)
• Officially filed financial statements
• Publication/registration timeline
• Published interviews

IN OTHER WORDS, THIS IS NOT SPECULATION. IT IS A RECONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC FACTS THAT REMAIN DISCONNECTED UNTIL SOMEONE CONNECTS THEM.