![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
The Italian Five Star Movement (FSM) is one of the most interesting political phenomena in contemporary Europe. On one hand, this populist anti-establishment party has expressed a critical, albeit ambiguous, position on the European Union and the euro. In particular, the FSM’s euroscepticism became apparent during the 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections. On the other hand, analysis of the voting behaviour in the EP shows that the Movement differs from the ‘hard’ eurosceptic UKIP, its main ally in the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) grouping, and is often closer to the pro-EU parties, in particular the Green group. Overall, the FSM’s euroscepticism is more strategic than ideological.
Notes
1 On the FSM see, among others, Corbetta and Gualmini, Il partito di Grillo; Biorcio and Natale, Politica a 5 stelle; Mosca, “The Five Star Movement”.
2 However, if votes from Italian citizens living abroad are included, the FSM was surpassed by the centre-left Democratic Party.
3 Biancalana and Tronconi, “Il Movimento 5 stelle”, 127.
4 For example, see “The FSM is neither rightwing nor leftwing”, published on the blog http://www.beppegrillo.it/2013/01/il_m5s_non_e_di_destra_ne_di_sinistra.html (in Italian), 13 January 2013. Tellingly, the first line of this official post reads: “The time for ideologies is over”. Grillo’s website and blog is the Movement’s communications medium and represents a sort of virtual party headquarters.
5 The expression casta was popularised by a best-selling book about inefficiency and corruption in Italian politics written by two journalists in 2007: Stella and Rizzo, La casta.
6 See, in particular, Cosenza, “Grillo’s Communication Style”.
7 The First V-Day was held on 8 September 2007 in Bologna, while the V2-Day took place on 25 April 2008 in Turin.
8 See, among others, Diamanti, “The 5 Star Movement”; Natale, “The Birth, Early History”; Biorcio, “The Reasons for the Success”.
9 See Grillo’s communiqué: “Online Consultation: Political Communiqué No. 55”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/11/consultazione_online_-_comunicato_politico_numero_cinquantacinque.html (in Italian), 28 November 2014.
10 See Grillo’s communiqué: “FSM’s Regulations and Appeals Committee”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/12/regolamento_m5s_e_comitato_di_appello.html (in Italian), 23 December 2014. At the time of writing (13 February 2015), 36 Members of Parliament have left the FSM’s group or been expelled.
11 See Taggart, Populism; Chiapponi, Il populismo nella prospettiva.
12 See Chiapponi, Ibid.; Mény and Surel, Democracy and Populist Challenge; Shils, The Torment of Secrecy.
13 See, in particular, Corbetta, “Un web-populismo dal destino incerto”.
14 Recourse to the concept of ‘people’ often requires a specific characterisation in order to draw mass consent, which in turn overcomes the particular conceptualisation of the meaning of ‘democracy’. Therefore populist discourse sometimes refers explicitly to a national identity, e.g., ‘French people’, ‘Italian people’, etc. This particular aspect is a recurrent feature in several populist movements across Europe, even though it is not an essential aspect of the Italian FSM. Given the widespread eurosceptical sentiments, these parties have proven successful in securing votes out of the cleavage between pro- and anti-European forces. By raising issues revolving around sovereignty (as well as social security matters), they propose a political solution to the ‘Problem of Europe’.
15 For example, cf. the “FSM’s Programme”: http://www.beppegrillo.it/iniziative/movimentocinquestelle/Programma-Movimento-5-Stelle.pdf (in Italian). In this document the question of Europe is largely absent.
16 See Dehousse, “Negative Europeanisation”.
17 Corbetta and Vignati, “Direct Democracy and Scapegoats”.
18 Corbetta and Vignati, Ibid.; Castelli Gattinara and Froio, “Opposition in the EU”.
19 FSM’s Programme for the 2014 European Elections: http://www.beppegrillo.it/europee/programma/ (in Italian).
20 Corbetta and Vignati, Ibid., 56–7.
21 See, for example, the FSMs’ group in the Senate, “The Referendum on the Euro”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/04/il_referendum_s.html (in Italian), 2 April 2014. The post glorifies “popular sovereignty” (“so the sovereign people have the last word!”), but at the same time stresses that “Italians have been dispossessed of their currency and treated as subjects”. See also Corbetta and Vignati, “Direct Democracy and Scapegoats”, 58.
22 “Press conference with Beppe Grillo: On 13 December, sign to leave #OutOfTheEuro!”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/12/diretta_con_beppe_grillo_il_13_dicembre_firma_per_uscire_fuoridalleuro.html (in Italian), 10 December 2014.
23 These radical eurosceptical figures included anti-EU anthropologist Ida Magli (5 March 2012) and British politician Nigel Farage (5 August 2013, before the political alliance was formed between the FSM and the UKIP in the EP). See Corbetta and Vignati, “Direct Democracy and Scapegoats”, 58-9.
24 Paul Taggart and Alex Szczerbiak proposed an oft-quoted distinction between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ euroscepticism. The former is associated with “principled opposition” to the EU and European integration, while the latter is associated with “contingent and qualified opposition”. Taggart and Szczerbiak, “The Party Politics of Euroscepticism”, 7.
25 Castelli Gattinara and Froio, Opposition in the EU; Corbetta and Vignati, “Direct Democracy and Scapegoats”.
26 In particular, Quaglia, “‘The Ebb and Flow’ of Euroscepticism”, 34.
27 See Marks and Wilson, “The Past in the Present”.
28 Sitter, “The Politics of Opposition”.
29 See Biancalana and Tronconi, “Il Movimento 5 stelle”. Cf. Lanzone and Rombi, “Who did participate?” on the FSM’s online primary elections for the 2013 general elections.
30 ‘Seven Points for Europe’, https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/materiali-bg/7punti.pdf (in Italian). See also Castelli Gattinara and Froio, Opposition in the EU, 21-2.
31 See Canale et al., Contro l’Europa, chap 4; Cosenza, “Grillo's communication style”.
32 See Maurizio Buccarella, head of the FSM’s group in the Senate at the time, “Tangentopoli of broad agreements”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/05/tangentopoli_a.html (in Italian), 8 May 2014.
33 “Schulz, Renzie’s krapò [Kapo + fat-head]”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/05/shulz_il_krapo_di_renzie.html (in Italian), 11 May 2014. For the original newspaper article with Schulz’ comments, see A. Cazzullo, “Schulz: ‘Grillo è soltanto vento. Mi ricorda Stalin. O Chávez’”, Corriere della Sera, 11 May 2014.
34 For example, “Renzie, a Lot of Talk and a Badge”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/05/renzie_chiacchi.html (in Italian), 11 May 2014; “Renzie in a Recession”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/05/renzie_in_recessione.html (in Italian), 15 May 2014.
35 “Schulz, “Renzie’s krapò [Kapo + fat-head]”; see also “The FSM Votes against Renzie’s Austerity”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/04/il_m5s_vota_contro_lausterita_di_renzie.html (in Italian), 17 April 2014.
36 On the polls’ failure, see Corbetta, “Sondaggi: un altro flop”.
37 Cf. De Giorgi, “The Evolution of the Italian Opposition”.
38 Among others, Quaglia, “‘The Ebb and Flow’ of Euroscepticism”; Di Mauro, "Is the Honeymoon Over?”.
39 Reif and Schmitt. “Nine Second‐order National Elections”.
40 See, among others, Treib, “The Voter says No”; Canale et al., Contro l’Europa.
41 Pasquino and Valbruzzi, “Il Partito democratico”.
42 See Tuorto, “L’Europa va in bianco?”.
43 See Canale et al., Contro l’Europa.
44 “We’ll Win Later”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/05/vinciamopoi.html (in Italian), 26 May 2014.
45 See, among others, Canale et al., Contro l’Europa.
46 Raunio, “Second Rate Parties?”.
47 Hix and Lord, “Political Parties in the European Union”.
48 Hix et al., “Democratic Politics in the European Parliament”.
49 Hix, “Political System of the European Union”.
50 Hix et al., “Democratic Politics in the European Parliament”.
51 This political alliance was confirmed by an ‘online consultation’. See “Online consultation: The FSM’s European Political Group”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/06/consultazione_o.html (in Italian), 12 June 2014.
52 Amjad Mahmood Bashir was elected for the UKIP but defected to the Conservative Party (ECR group in the EP) on 24 January 2015.
53 Cohesion refers to how united a European political group is in voting situations. The data from Votewatch.eu has been chosen because it provides the clearest and most complete picture of what is actually happening within the EP. As to how the cohesion rate is measured, the definition provided by Hix et al. (“Democratic Politics in the European Parliament”) and used by votewatch.eu has been adopted. It is calculated in two steps: for each vote, votewatch.eu establishes an “Agreement Index” for each European political grouping according to the Hix-Noury-Roland formula. The cohesion rate is then determined by the arithmetical average of the scores of the Agreement Index (http://www.votewatch.eu/blog/guide-to-votewatcheu/#sthash.Kn4p6RyR.dpuf).
55 Corbetta and Gualmini, Il partito di Grillo.
56 Castelli Gattinara and Froio, Opposition in the EU, 23.
57 For example, P. Becchi, “The Brussels Caste”, http://www.beppegrillo.it/2014/05/la_casta_di_bruxelles.html (in Italian), 18 May 2014. Paolo Becchi, a university professor, is sometimes regarded as a non-official ideologue of the Movement.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Paolo Franzosi
Paolo Franzosi is Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia. Email: [email protected]. Francesco Marone is Research Fellow in the same department. Email: [email protected]. Eugenio Salvati is also Research Fellow in the same department. Email: [email protected]. The authors’ names are in alphabetical order. The article is the result of a joint effort, however, Paolo Franzosi wrote the first section; Francesco Marone the introduction, second section and conclusion; and Eugenio Salvati the third section. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Francesco Marone
Paolo Franzosi is Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia. Email: [email protected]. Francesco Marone is Research Fellow in the same department. Email: [email protected]. Eugenio Salvati is also Research Fellow in the same department. Email: [email protected]. The authors’ names are in alphabetical order. The article is the result of a joint effort, however, Paolo Franzosi wrote the first section; Francesco Marone the introduction, second section and conclusion; and Eugenio Salvati the third section. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Eugenio Salvati
Paolo Franzosi is Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Pavia. Email: [email protected]. Francesco Marone is Research Fellow in the same department. Email: [email protected]. Eugenio Salvati is also Research Fellow in the same department. Email: [email protected]. The authors’ names are in alphabetical order. The article is the result of a joint effort, however, Paolo Franzosi wrote the first section; Francesco Marone the introduction, second section and conclusion; and Eugenio Salvati the third section. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.