Futuro Nazionale, the party founded in February by Roberto Vannacci after his departure from the Lega, has announced the opening of a Constituent Committee in the Republic of San Marino.
The initiative targets cross-border workers (frontalieri), retired former frontalieri, and those who live and work in the Republic, placing the double taxation of pensions at the top of its agenda. The announcement comes from Simone Mazzi, a municipal councillor in Montefiore Conca, who in the same statement also announced the party’s first committee in Argentina, in Buenos Aires.
For now, the launch remains just an announcement: according to the statement, the paperwork for the formal opening will be sent to the national secretariat within hours. The constituent committee is the basic organisational unit through which Futuro Nazionale establishes itself locally.
Back in August, Mazzi himself spoke of nearly two thousand such committees across Italy.
Who exactly will make up the San Marino committee is not mentioned in the statement.
There are no names of local coordinators, nor any figures on membership numbers. The only name besides Mazzi’s is Francesca Barbarancia, described as a lecturer, a PhD candidate in artificial intelligence, and a journalist. The statement credits her and her working group with playing a decisive role in bringing the committee to fruition.
Mazzi describes the reception as “extraordinarily positive.”
Mazzi also serves as a councillor for the Unione della Valconca and as coordinator of the Rimini 1596 committee.
He was himself once a cross-border worker and has been working on the issue for months. On 4 August he met with San Marino’s Comites, the body representing resident Italians, which — ahead of upcoming elections — has opened talks with all Italian political forces. Shortly afterwards he took charge of the dossier from AFIS, the Associazione Frontalieri Italia San Marino, promising to bring it to the national secretariat.
At the heart of the dossier lies the pension issue.
Italy’s Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) maintains that a pension accrued through work in San Marino, if received by someone residing in Italy, should be taxed solely in Italy, and it does not recognise credit for taxes already withheld on the Titano. San Marino argues the opposite and does not issue refunds.
Caught in between is the pensioner, who ends up paying twice.
Tax judges in Rimini have repeatedly ruled in favour of pensioners.
The Italian government, responding to a parliamentary question, acknowledged the inconsistency but upheld the Revenue Agency’s interpretation, and tax demands keep arriving. In early September, a collection notice served to one member prompted AFIS to write to Deputy Economy Minister Maurizio Leo requesting a meeting. The Futuro Nazionale statement cites a €5,000 tax bill imposed on a former frontaliere pensioner.
AFIS’s dossier also covers Law 104 (on disability support) and family allowances.
Futuro Nazionale is an Italian party, and its message is aimed at those who vote in Italian elections: cross-border workers, pensioners who spent a lifetime working here, and residents holding Italian passports who cast their ballots from abroad in national elections.
Back in August, Mazzi had been explicit: he said that starting from the next legislature, the party would sit in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, bringing the demands of frontalieri directly into Parliament.
In the same statement, Mazzi announced the first membership cards signed in Argentina by a group of Italian entrepreneurs, giving rise to the Buenos Aires committee. There too, no names were given.
In the headline of the release, Futuro Nazionale “expands its borders.”
For the record, San Marino’s borders remain exactly where they are: what is expanding is the network of an Italian party, among the Italians who cross that border for work — or crossed it for a lifetime.
