The Italian Party: The Five Star Movement

Over the last few years, there has been an obvious shift of the electorate across Southern Europe, in Spain, Greece and Italy. This shift has come in the form of the rise of anti-establishment and anti-systemic political parties, and the gradual move away from established, ‘old’ parties. Some of the factors that will be discussed are a resentment towards a ‘corrupt’ political and social welfare system, and economic grievances caused by the leaders of the established old parties, that the Italian party Five Star Movement for example name, ‘the enemy of the people’. Greece and Spain “emerged from their latest and most protracted encounter with authoritarian rule in the mid 1970’s and have never previously experienced extended periods of democratic …show more content…
The financial crisis and the fall of Silvio Berlusconi’s government contributed heavily to why Grillo’s party gained to much popularity, however like Syriza in Greece, it is the way that they resonate with the people and move away from the rhetoric of the establishment. From Newell’s book, we hear about the dominance of the two party system and of Berlusconi’s “combative” election campaigns. The critic mentions, “The political product he offered blended traditional values, liberalism and a massive dose of populism” . This tells us to some extent that it originally wasn’t the fault of him, or the centre parties themselves, but more to do with the way that the government went about dealing with crisis’, such as the economic crash. The media tycoon and his party began to lose the trust of voters in a similar fashion to the top-down establishment that was going on in Greece. The Five Star Movement gained more popularity because of their stance on the Euro. The crash was so detrimental to so many people in Italy, and it was argued that from, “the economic point of view, the euro is harmful because it has favoured big banks at the expense of small investors.” So, when Grillo proposed a referendum on whether to stay in the Euro, because of the failure of the previous centre governments to find solutions to the crash, it was a popular move. Of course however, Europe was not the only factor. Like other radical parties, Grillo claimed that his party was the only one that fully represented the people. With Berlusconi being convicted of fraud and the continued rumours of corruption, the Italian people became bored, and The Five Star Movement do not look like they are going