Roberto Vannacci releases AI video of President Mattarella granting clemency to jeweler Mario Roggero

Roberto Vannacci, leader of the Futuro Nazionale party, posted a synthetic‑media video on Instagram that depicts him as a Roman legionary approaching a figure styled like President Sergio Mattarella. In the deep‑fake, Vannacci hands a parchment requesting presidential grace for Mario Roggero, a jeweler serving a sentence for the double homicide of two armed robbers. The video shows Mattarella, rendered in imperial attire, approving the request, after which Roggero is released from a simulated prison cell and greeted by his wife, daughters and a cheering crowd.

The clip follows an earlier AI‑generated film that placed opposition leaders in a Roman arena and appears amid a newly announced pact between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and opposition leader Elly Schlein to curb deep‑fake content in political campaigns. Vannacci’s broader campaign also includes a drive for a law expanding the scope of legitimate self‑defence, during which a Futuro Nazionale gazebo in Taranto was destroyed by activists identified as left‑wing extremists.

The videos have sparked debate over the ethical use of AI‑generated imagery in political communication and the propriety of publicly depicting the President in a fabricated scenario of clemency.