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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Italy's Trump': This is what the Five Star Movement is all about
Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S) was back in the headlines on Sunday for its major role in a bitter and successful campaign against prime minister Matteo Renzi's proposed constitutional reforms. The No vote it backed in the referendum forced Renzi's resignation.
Polls indicate M5S is now the most popular opposition party in Italy, and it looks well-placed to make a bid for power if a snap election is called. But what exactly is this insurgent movement, and where has it come from?
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The party's policies don't fit neatly into the traditional left-right political spectrum, something the party is keen to emphasise. It is variously anti-establishment, Eurosceptic, anti-immigration and pro-green. The "Five Stars" refers to its five flagship issues: publicly owned water, sustainable (eco-friendly) transport, sustainable development, right to internet access, and environmentalism.
However mixed its messages might seem, they worked. Voters, disillusioned with the "status quo" and politicians' weak response to the economic downturn, began to lodge their protest by supporting M5S at the ballot box. In Italy's 2013 general election, the party picked up 30% of the vote (although it won only 106 of over 600 seats due to a voting system which favours parties in coalition). In terms of vote share, they were the second-most popular party, and support has remained on a similar level ever since.
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-italy-five-star-movement-beppe-grillo-trump-farage-2016-12
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Nice ideology and all, except they can't get their shit together to actually govern.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,316 posts)The link of 'the man billed by some as "Italy's Trump"' actually goes to an Economist article titled "Populism: On the dangers of comparing every political event to Donald Trump". While Grillo does have a criminal conviction (which stops him sitting in parliament), He is not a claimed billionaire with endless financial scandals and conflicts of interest, and a long history of misogyny - that's Berlusconi, obviously.
"The "Five Stars" refers to its five flagship issues: publicly owned water, sustainable (eco-friendly) transport, sustainable development, right to internet access, and environmentalism. " - so, nothing whatsoever like Trump. Bernie Sanders might be closer to the mark, but it's not a great fit.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)It's the far right and far left against the center-right and center-left establishment parties.
In Austria, a former Green beat the far right candidate for president.
In Greece, Syriza and Golden Dawn represent the extremes against the center.
In the US it was the intra-party contests of Trump versus the establishment represented best by Bush and Sander versus the establishment Clinton.