The UE turn of a populist movement: at the roots of the Five-star Movement’s foreign-policy agenda

ABSTRACT

Until its success at the election of 2013, the Five-star Movement had not paid a great deal of attention to foreign policy. In 2017, in preparation for the election the following year, the Movement’s MPs began collating what they considered the most relevant policy proposals in order to draft a new electoral programme. Using the Movement’s web platform, Rousseau, the M5s asked registered members to choose the three most important issues of foreign policy from a list of ten. The aim of this article is to see how the Movement defined its foreign policy. This analysis helps us to understand the EU turn that has characterized the foreign-policy agenda of the Movement in recent years. Having embraced the possibility of Italy’s exit from the Eurozone in 2013, the Movement today appears to be in favour of strengthening the European institutions.

Keywords:

• Five-star Movement
• Foreign Policy Agenda
• Valence Populist Party
• Italy's Foreign Policy
• European Union

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The determinants of attention to foreign-policy issues concern agenda setting (Wood and Peake 1998). However, ‘the process by which demands of various groups in the population are translated into items vying for the serious attention of public officials can appropriately be called agenda building’ (Cobb, Ross, and Ross 1976, 126). It is widely accepted that agenda building involves the active role of media organizations in terms of agenda setting, but that it is focused above all on the participation of groups, as well as policymakers (Cobb and Elder 1972; Boydstun 2013).

2. See http://www.movimento5stelle.it/parlamento/esteri/comunicati/. Neither is parliamentary activity helpful for the purposes of identifying the Movement’s policy on international issues (Lomellini 2017).

3. See ‘Five Star MPs – Blog Foreign Affairs’, at w w w.m ovimento 5stelle.it/… /esteri/

4. During his time in government, Di Stefano has always been under-secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The author of this article consulted him on several occasions and interviewed him on 11 June 2019.

5. See ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’ and ‘M5s Online Program’, (in Italian) (https://www.movimento5stelle .it/programma/esteri.html).

6. ‘The foreign policy of the Five-star Movement is based on respecting the self-determination of peoples, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of individual countries; on respect for multilateralism, cooperation and dialogue between peoples … ’ (see ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.3).

7. ‘The M5s recognizes the right to peace … and, for this reason, opposes any armed intervention … except for the purposes of peace-keeping’ (‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.4).

8. ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.5. The same language is used in the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development: ‘We recognise that there are different approaches, visions, models and tools available to each country, in accordance with its national circumstances and priorities, to achieve sustainable development; and we reaffirm that planet Earth and its ecosystems are our common home and that “Mother Earth” is a common expression in a number of countries and regions’ (point 59, at https://goo.gl/gMshrU).

9. ‘The M5s will support a process of adaptation of the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) to the new multilateral context … ’ (‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.5). The M5s supports disarmament, but it also supports the salary of the army and proposes to invest in dual-use technology, cybersecurity and drones in spite of fighter aircraft (see The Five-star Movement’s Defence Programme, at https://goo.gl/8F3NnR).

10. ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.7.

11. ‘The Five Stars’ Citizen’s Guide to Europe’, https://www.movimento5stelle.it/parlamentoeuropeo/libro_cittadini_eng .pdf, p.4.

12. ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.8, italics added.

13. ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, pp.7–9

14. ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.9.

15. ‘The Five Stars’ Citizen’s Guide to Europe’, p.7.

16. ‘Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, p.9.

17. Opposition to TTIP-style commercial treaties has been one of the M5s’s main campaigning issues in recent years. The online magazine, ‘Beppe Grillo’s Blog’, has dealt with the TTIP issue many times, denouncing the potential problems it creates for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the danger of both the production and consumption of genetically-modified foods. See, for example, the text posted in December 2014, ‘TTIP: se lo conosci lo eviti’, http://goo.gl/wuVJRh.

18. ‘RISULTATI – Votazione online: il #Programma Esteri del MoVimento 5 Stelle’, www.beppegrillo.it/2017/04 /votazione_online_il_programmaesteri_del_movimento_5_stelle.html.

19. See https://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/2018/05/summary_of_the_contract_for_the_government_of_change_in_italy .html. See also https://www.leganord.org/programma-politiche and http://www.forza-italia.it/speciali/Programma_centrodestra_condiviso_10_PUNTI.pdf.

20. See https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/09/04/governo-conte-2-il-programma-definitivo-in-29-punti-dal-taglio-tasse-al-salario-minimo-al-processo-per-lautonomia-differenziata/5430163/, in particular (point 2): ‘The Government will work to promote the changes necessary to overcome the excessive rigidity of European constraints’. The M5s became somewhat less critical of the EU as a consequence of the change in government. It is worth mentioning, however, the Movement’s unchanged hostility to using the loan facilities made available within the framework of the European Stability Mechanism.

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Emidio Diodato

Emidio Diodato, professor of Political Science. Ph.D. in International Relations.