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June 23, 2022 - 4:10pm
Since sweeping to power in 2018, the so-called 5 Star Movement has struggled to find any sense of purpose or identity. Largely serving as little more than an appendage to Mario Draghi’s Government, it is now polling at a meagre 12%. The local elections were a wash-out, marking a heavy defeat for the party that, in most Italian cities, was forced to align itself with the liberal centre-Left Democratic Party.
For some time, there had been talk of an internal rift between the party’s leader Giuseppe Conte and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, who is one of the leading figures of the 5 Star. This week, this rift spilled into open conflict when Di Maio decided to leave and to create a new parliamentary group called ‘Together for the Future’.
According to the Italian press, the division in the party is due to its position on the war in Ukraine. While Conte’s side has been against sending arms, Di Maio wanted to hold a position closer to NATO and Draghi, saying that Five Star “had the duty to support the government without ambiguity… supporting European and Atlanticist values cannot be seen as a fault”.
The 5 Star Movement has always voted in favour of all parliamentary resolutions to send weapons to Ukraine, so Di Maio’s reason for leaving seems odd. In truth, he is probably thinking a little more cynically. The next elections are close (less than a year away) and it is likely that Di Maio and other 5 Star members are fleeing a sinking ship in order to get a seat in the next Parliament.
The Italian public has abandoned 5 Star too. The awful result in the local elections revealed as much when the party secured only 2.1% of the vote nationwide. Despite four years in power, 5 Star grew no roots in any local territories, and its voters did not appreciate the party’s toeing of the Government line on Covid-19, the alliance with PD, sending weapons to Ukraine, and above all propping up Draghi’s Government.
It could have been so different. When the 5 Star Movement took office with 33% of the vote, there was a sense in Italy that we were entering a new era. But it turned out that neither 5 Star nor the League were really prepared to govern. Having campaigned as populists, they were slowly subsumed into the very establishment they railed against.
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Subscribe“On the third Sunday after Snowball’s expulsion, the animals were somewhat surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all … this extra task would mean very hard work; it might even be necessary to reduce rations … “
It shall disappear, no doubt.
Meloni sends her heartfelt thanks and her thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased whom she is eager to welcome and give shelter.