The metamorphosis of Italy’s Five Star Movement

If we take a look back at the birth of the Italian Five Star Movement in 2009, we’d probably struggle to recognize the political party it’s become today. Founded by comedian Beppe Grillo as an anti-establishment, anti-corruption, Eurosceptic movement led by the people for the people, it’s transformed into just another entity playing the game of politics to gain power in Italy.

The Movement—whose leaders used to stress was not a “party”—today feels like any other party, just with a less defined ideology that gives it enough wiggle room to change position and policies according to the needs and interests of the moment. The more the Movement gains momentum, the more it fails to honor what it had originally pledged.

In 2016, the Movement won the mayor’s offices in Rome, Turin and several other cities. It subsequently placed “common” people—not experienced politicians—in these cities’ municipal councils, honoring its promise to fight the establishment. Since then, many of these politicians have been accused of corruption, fraud, and abuse of office. Some wondered: Where is the honesty, the candor they so loudly advocate for?

Then, on March 4 of this year, came the parliamentary elections. The Movement won 32 percent of the votes, becoming the most popular party in Italy.

But the seats it gained in the parliament were not enough to govern; if the Movement wants to take charge of Italy, it must form a solid coalition with at least one other party. Supporters were forced to watch their party, so keen on denouncing the other parties, now try to make a deal with them. The Movement’s leader, Luigi Di Maio, criticized by many during the campaign for his lack of education and experience, is now likely to become Italy’s next prime minister.

The party that is now forming an alliance with Di Maio is the far-right League, led by Matteo Salvini. The two parties share two main ideologies: They both despise the Democratic Party and they both have a history of Euroscepticism. Other than that, the harsh discussions and deep inconsistencies emerging as these parties attempt to form a government suggest that whatever alliance they are creating is too feeble to survive in the long run.

Now, new reports suggest a more lenient position of the Five Star Movement towards the European Union. Some Italian newspapers even speculated on a possible shift of the Movement to a pro-Macron ideology. The French president denied the rumors of an alliance with the Italian populist party: The progressive values of openness and humanism of Europe en Marche, the party’s Marianne Escurat wrote in a statement, are “not compatible with the demagogic and populist, and openly Eurosceptic, positions of the Five Star Movement.”

Italian voters have been very clear about not wanting another government led by the Democratic Party. But what they might get seems to be unsteady, unpredictable, and not necessarily what they have been promised during the electoral campaign.

Photo: Luigi Di Maio / Facebook.