By Silvia Marchettia
ROME (MaceNews) – Italy’s populist Five Star movement is likely heading towards an implosion to the benefit of the entire ruling coalition and the country’s future, according to other allied party sources.
“They’re lost, without a leader and a clear way forward. Many members have ditched the group while others eye to form a new independent group. That anti-establishment populist movement that rose to power hailing the Trump-style rhetoric and politics is definitely over”, said a right-wing deputy.
The 5 Stars are part of premier Mario Draghi’s national unity government but since their alliance with the other four parties, including former enemies the League and the Democrats, they have been steadily losing consensus and are no longer Italy’s leading political group.
“In the 2018 the party secured 11 million votes, now they’re on the brink of collapse which is good news for investors as they won’t be a threat anymore to political stability and to Italy’s growth”, said another member of a ruling ally party.
“They praised Trump’s ‘wind of change’ that was blowing across Europe; they’re left with a handful of dust now”.
According to recent polls the 5 Stars stand at barely 15% in approval rate (down from 32% in 2018) and risk dropping below 10% at the next general elections in 2023.
Over 30 deputies and senators have either ditched the movement in recent months or switched allegiances over rising contrasts with founder comic Beppe Grillo and a tentative power grab by former premier Giuseppe Conte, who is still trying to weigh whether the party has any future at all before taking on the leadership.
Sources noted that the “remaining 5 Stars” will be weaker than in the past, with no power to maintain their key iconic legislation which they forced through parliament three years ago: the citizenship income based on granting the jobless a monthly allowance just because they’re Italian.
“This measure has been catastrophic, it goes against the principle of merit and drains key resources to investments. Once the 5 Stars are officially dead, the measure could be scrapped or turned into a more efficient form of subsidy that actually incentivizes youth to actively look for a job rather than living off the state”, said an official.
The 5 Stars have gone from being an anti-establishment force to being part of the establishment itself when they first rose to power and their ‘new friendship’ with the Democrats is seen by many supporters as a form of betrayal, said a former 5 Stars dissident who has joined the ranks of an independent group in parliament.
Conte accuses founder Grillo of controlling the party as a puppeteer and is against his pro-China stance that clashes with Italy’s membership of the NATO, while Grillo is desperately trying to block Conte’s rise to power. Their struggle is deepening the crisis.
Another positive outcome of a crippled 5 Stars Movement is it will also drop once and for all past calls to ditch the eurozone and its anti-European rhetoric which have created repeated market volatility in recent years, argued a source.
“They have always been a destabilizing element, even this year when we had to join forces between all parties to support Draghi’s emergency cabinet. Till the very end it was unclear whether they’d vote yes to his government, threatening an early vote”, said an official.
The 5 Stars had a direct form of democracy through online voting to weigh supporters’ opinion on key decisions and measures but such tool has recently been shelved and the party has failed to define a new statute.
Conte’s rescue mission appears impossible, said sources.
“It is likely that if Conte succeeds in taking the helm of the movement he will likely turn it into a centrist force to make it survive, a rehash of the Democrats. Our original spirit will be killed and the party will become an appendix of the center-left, without any significant political traits”, said the former 5 Stars deputy.
A collapse of the 5 Stars might trigger the birth of one or two tiny little parties. In an attempt to avoid an implosion a committee of ‘wise men’ has been set-up to define a way forward and draft a statute. The two mediators trying to forge a ‘third-way’ are the Lower house President Roberto Fico and the Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio.
“Take Di Maio for instance, he used to be the most aggressive, pro-Trump and revolutionary of the 5 Stars, now for the sake of holding on to his institutional role he’s the most tamed, the most diplomatic and sensible of all”, said an official.
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Contact this reporter: silvia@macenews.com
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