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Anti-establishment voting and Euroscepticism: The case of Italy and the Five Star Movement
Abstract
This paper explores the meaning of the Italian anti-establishment voting and whether the Five Star Movement’s anti-establishment label is appropriate. More specifically the investigation addresses the policies of the Five Star Movement towards the now creaking European Union, especially as growing Euroscepticism has been boosted by the Brexit referendum and the Trump dismissal and disdain for the European Union. In doing so, the paper examines the historic approach of so-called ‘anti- establishment’ parties that have had an almost ‘normal’ occurrence within the Italian political environment since the end of the Second World War. In this sense the paper concludes that addressing parties and systems as anti-establishment does little to help our understanding of this most fluid political period in Italy and across Europe.
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The rise of the movement led by Beppe Grillo was in the beginning extremely slow, as had happened in the case of Umberto Bossi’s Lega Nord. Despite the profound differences between their political programmes, both achieved electoral success thanks to two main issues: the crisis of the traditional parties and the strong reaction of the electorate against the so-called casta, the political class as a whole. In the early years, the MoVimento 5 Stelle (Five Star Movement, M5S) was chosen by two main types of voter: those with previous attachments to the left, disillusioned by the traditional parties belonging to that area, and those who were previously not interested in politics, now eager to participate directly in the policymaking process. After the electoral boom of the last couple of years, the actual composition of the M5S electorate has become more varied: the older types have more recently been joined by citizens with previous attachments with the right. In order to ensure that the movement endures, and to avoid a rapid end to their political adventure, M5S leaders must quickly learn to talk convincingly to the different souls that animate its support base.
The enduring economic crisis, austerity measures and corruption scandals have created a favourable environment for the advent of new political actors all over Europe. During the last general elections (February 2013), Italy was shocked by the inexorable rise of the Five Star Movement. Beppe Grillo’s creature upset the political system, occupying portions of the public sphere that had been ignored (the web) or gradually abandoned by traditional political parties (the squares). Its unusual campaigning style, its internet-based organisational structure, its atypical political positioning (beyond left and right), and its oversimplification of complex problems all help to explain its electoral performance, and distinguish it from similar anti-establishment parties that have emerged in Europe over the past decade.
The history of the Five Star Movement is brief but complex. From the outset, the Movement’s political symbol provided a sort of ‘common brand’ for local action groups and movements, already active on the ground, engaged in pursuing environmental issues and in defending public amenities. In the initial phase of its existence, its voters were oriented to the left. Then, as time went by, it won support also from those on the centre-right, in particular from PdL and Northern League voters, owing to the disappointment they felt as a result of the scandals and internal divisions that had hit those parties. In the end, Grillo’s Movement became a sort of vehicle of anti-political protest, used by citizens to voice their discontent with traditional parties and professional politicians. On the basis of this widened support, it achieved unexpected electoral success at the 2013 general election. The Five Star Movement would not exist without Beppe Grillo; and it shares, in fact, the main features of the personal party model. However, the ‘personalised’ nature of the leader’s relationship with his voters does not stand out as much as one might expect. The Movement’s main political proposal revolves around a critique of representative democracy, and a strong preference for direct and deliberative democracy. In short, it is very difficult to define Beppe Grillo and ‘his’ Movement, since this political entity is not representative of a ‘specific model’ but is, rather, an accurate reflection of the ongoing crisis European democracies are now experiencing.
A potent threat to freedom is posed by the rise of democracy's "doubles"—regimes that claim to be democratic and may look like democracies, but which rule like autocracies. Liberal democracy today is challenged on one side by Hugo Chávez's revolutionary Venezuela and on the other by Vladimir Putin's antirevolutionary Russia. The rise of Chávez's "direct democracy" and Russia's "directed democracy" poses a clear challenge to the political pluralism that is central to liberal democracy. The populist leader and the political technologist are the twin embodiments of the major threat to liberal democracy today.
Though short-lived as an electoral force, the Poujadist movement of the 1950s provides a lasting reference point within French political culture. As a term, 'Poujadism' is synonymous with opposition to economic and social change; as a political doctrine, it has proved more resistant to definition. Denounced by some as a resurgent fascism, Poujadism has been classed by most commentators as an extreme-right movement. This article re-examines that interpretation and argues that Poujadism presents a complex and ambiguous picture, embodying two distinct and opposing French political traditions: the revolutionary-republican and the conservative-nationalist. Far from providing a vehicle for fascism, Pierre Poujade resisted attempts to impose an extreme-right ideology on his movement or to harness it for neo-fascist ends, confirming both the highly specific nature of Poujadism and the continued marginality of the French extreme Right a decade on from Vichy.
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