The polyvalent populism of the 5 Star Movement

ABSTRACT

Widely recognised as a populist party within a context of mutating populism, ideational approaches have taken only a marginal role in the analysis of the issues of the Movimento 5 Stelle (5 Star Movement, M5S). The article elaborates on the supply side of the M5S and shows how its populist frame has been able to incorporate ideological features attributed to the ‘new politics’ of the libertarian left as much as the ‘new populism’ of the radical right. Such a peculiarity is conceptualised in terms of polyvalent populism – a variant of populism that rests on concomitant ideological discordance, newness, and radicalness. The theoretical argument is complemented by the analysis of Beppe Grillo’s political supply over the span of his ‘long decade’ between political activism and the electoral breakthrough of the movement party. The analysis also demonstrates that those contentious issues that have often caused public clamour and offered room for convergence between the M5S and the Lega on a shared governmental platform (2018) were already part of Grillo’s discourse – though often unspoken in official programmatic documents.

KEYWORDS:

• 5 Star Movement
• Beppe Grillo
• populism
• ideology
• movement parties

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented as part of the ‘Disentangling the Coil of Radical Politics in Europe’ Session at the 111th American Political Science Association (APSA) Meeting, San Francisco, 3–6 September 2015. Such draft originally consisted of a joint effort with Simona Guerra, whom I would like to thank for the initial exchanges surrounding this article. I would finally like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. As also evidenced by this excerpt, it is a moot point whether ‘citizens’, rather than ‘the people’, rest at the heart of M5S’s populism (Urbinati 2018). As the two entities – and/or whoever acting on their behalf – advance similar concerns, there is no substantive reason to move outside the analytical boundaries of populism for the sake of this study.

2. This should not suggest that environmentalism is sole prerogative of the left-libertarians. Still, the articulation of a specific set of post-materialist concerns has traditionally pertained to progressive left-wing movements and parties.

3. The 2013 Italian National Election Study (ITANES) and various other surveys released afterwards provide ample evidence of this.

4. In praise of the newly elected Pope Francis, Grillo reclaimed Saint Francis as the inspiration of the M5S. The Movimento was established on Saint Francis Day (4 October), as ‘he was the right saint for a Movement without public contributions, offices, treasurers, leaders. An environmentalist and animalist saint’ (Grillo 2013a, emphasis added).

5. Unlike other scholars, the interpretation of populism as an ideology questions the opportunity to include Silvio Berlusconi’s parties to the list. The article particularly argues that the ‘personal’ nature of Berlusconi’s parties and own political deeds would be in tension with the volonté générale prescribed by full-fledged populist actors (cf. Tarchi 2015; McDonnell 2013).

6. The substantial correspondence between Beppe Grillo’s political outlook and the ideological profile of the M5S over the abovementioned ‘long decade’ is further testified by the migration of a good portion of the contents of Grillo’s blog to a self-standing M5S platform (www.ilblogdellestelle.it) after his 2018’s separation from Casaleggio Associates.

7. The M5S’s stance on Europe was instead articulated on a dedicated mini-site (M5S 2014b) and summarised in a 7-point leaflet (M5S 2014c). The movement party eventually issued a 19-page document (M5S 2017a) outlining additional stances on ‘Europe’. Grillo’s elaboration on Euroscepticism, considered here one of the contentious issues purposefully left out of programmatic documents, substantiates ex post the value of the analysis conducted and the substantial continuity between the contents of Grillo’s blog and the issues later formalised in documents with an external orientation.

8. Relevant blog posts are those presenting political statements/arguments/thoughts on migrants, refugees, immigration, the single currency, the European Union and ‘Europe’. The analysis covered all blog posts appearing on www.beppegrillo.it returned from the search of the following keywords: immigra*, migra*, eu, euro*, europ*.

9. A legitimate concern pertains to the discrepancy ascertained between the 2018 programme ratified by the membership and the prospective governmental line subscribed by the M5S leadership (Corriere della Sera 2018b) – and, thus, the very same reliability of these sources. Similar inconsistencies, identified over the issue of Europe (Grillo 2016a, 2016b), do not affect the period covered by this article.

10. The term has been widely popularised by Stella and Rizzo (2007).

11. As far as inconsistency is concerned, it should also be noted that the M5S placed an unsuccessful bid to join the liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in January 2017, which failed to go through on the basis of ‘fundamental differences on key European issues’ (ALDE 2017).

12. In this regard, the 2018 electoral programme of the M5S reinstated most of its criticisms on quotas and the Dublin III Regulation ascertained earlier. The devoted section of the programme calls a halt to the ‘business of immigration’, and predominantly focuses on the failures of the previous governments and the excessive burden imposed on the country (M5S 2018).