Often dubbed an anti-establishment political movement, in actual fact, Italy’sFive Star Movement is promoting an establishment that works and serves citizens. Several Five Star Movement initiatives have caught this Italy watcher’s eye.
First off, there’s the SOS Equitalia initiative which was set up in May 2015 to help Italy’s citizens understand whether or not payment orders from Italy’s Equitalia back tax collection agency are legitimate, and not all are. An Italian accountant told me that Equitalia’s bills are extremely hard to challenge and that it is also very hard to know whether the sums requested by this debt collection agency for Italy’s taxman are legitimate. Well, the Five Star Movement now gives Italians a means to check whether or not the sums Equitalia is requesting are justified.
The Movement has started opening help points around Italy so Italians can discuss their Equitalia problems. Moreover, the 5 Star Movement’s SOS Equitalia service is working to help Italians understand how the tax collection agency works and and achieved a certain degree of success.
Indeed, it has been a little too successful, it seems, as Italy’s Matteo Renzi led government is working on passing legislation which will end the SOS Equitalia initiative. One way of looking at this is that the Five Star Movement wants to help Italians whereas the government does not. Needless to say, the Five Star Movement is battling to prevent the government from shutting down its helpful service.
Aside from helping Italians sort out their tax bills, from May 27 2015, Italy’s Five Star Movement started helping finance the nation’s legions of small and medium sized business (over 95% of businesses in Italy are tiny) by providing microcredit in the form of loans of up to €25,000, though in some cases, loans of up to €35,000 may be granted.
Funding for the Movement’s microcredit scheme comes from voluntary salary reductions agreed to by 5 Star Movement members of parliament. Also worthy of note is the fact that unlike Italy’s establishment political parties, the 5 Star Movement receives no public funding.
As well as offering funding for small businesses via its microcredit scheme, the Five Star Movement is touring Italy and offering assistance and advice on how to set up businesses, obtain European Union funding, and negotiate Italy’s tangles of red tape. How helpful!
Italy is a very much a nation of small businesses, so this initiative may well earn the Five Star Movement a good few votes when elections are eventually held in Italy – election day may come sooner rather than later seeing as Italy’s current government is not achieving very much for Italy’s citizens.
Take the Jobs Act employment law reform – it’s not had the desired effect so far and unemployment levels have risen especially amongst Italy’s young. The IMF reckons it’ll take Italy around 20 years to reach pre-crisis employment levels. Well, the Five Star Movement’s microcredit service might help generate a few jobs or even help some businesses grow. This, of course, may help repair Italy’s battered economy.
Talking of repairs, would you believe that the Five Star Movement helped fund the construction of a bypass to enable Sicily to function once more? Well, it did.
After the collapse of an electrical pylon closed a road, the Five Star Movement stepped in to fix the problem raising €300,000 via donations from the Five Star Movement’s regional councillors. Had Sicily waited for the establishment to step in and sort out the problem, the works probably wouldn’t have been completed before the end of this year and you can bet they would have cost considerably more too owing to the, ahem, bribery premium.
And 5 Star people are helping Italians in other ways too and may help prevent what the Movement claims is the forthcoming destruction of Italy’s national health service.
The Five Star Movement wants to cut the corruption out of Italian politics and more. If the Movement manages to win elections, it’ll also take on the European Union – while it might not take Italy out of the Euro, it might help negotiate better treatment for Italy and if this happens, other nations may benefit too.
Their helpful approach is starting to bear fruit in terms of opinion poll results so the chances of the Five Star Movement actually winning an election are increasing.
Italy’s current prime minister Matteo Renzi promised to scrap Italy’s defective grossly inefficient, corruption-ridden political system and transform it into something new. In reality though, what Mr Renzi appears to be doing is merely shoring up Italy’s political old guard and Italians are starting to notice.
When it comes, the anti-Five Star Movement counter-offensive is likely to involve a dirty tricks campaign, though it won’t be easy to smear the Five Star Movement because, unlike Italy’s other political parties, it is not dripping with the foul smelling rot of ages.
One is beginning to wonder whether the Five Star Movement might be the only real answer to Italy’s problems. Italians assisted by the Five Star Movement may well be starting to think the same.
Could the Five Star Movement win elections? Well, if Italy’s Matteo Renzi does not change tack, and this looks most unlikely, a Five Star Movement election victory could happen. We’ll see.
Gian Giacomo Migone says
Dear Alex,
thankyou for your attentive and curteous reply, full of good feeling for my country.
I share your hopes for Five Stars, though I feel your comments are altogether too lenient,
Their attitude concerning immigration is dictated by the sort of political opportunism that they rightly critizise. They are competing with Lega Nord for a backlash electorate that should be confronted on an issue that involves values and principles,
What you say about strong leadership, infant movement etc, is ok, but it is unacceptable that responsible dissenters like the former M5S mayor of Parma should be thrown out or indicated to public ludibrium.
You rightly support Marino, but M5S want his resignation – like Renzi who doesn’t dare to say so. Why?
all the best,
Gian Giacomo (Migone)
Alex Roe says
Dear Gian Giacomo,
Italians should be proud of Italy but not enough seem to be, alas. There’s lots to be proud of and I think the 5 Star people know this. I also get the impression Matteo Renzi knows this too.
As I mentioned before, I’m not too sure why the 5 Star Movement is anti-immigration (and not sure that is 100% is against it) but it’s something that generates votes in Italy as the Lega formerly Nord knows very well – even if the Lega helped bring about the Dublin Agreement which has caused problems for Italy.
Reading this post by Beppe Grillo http://www.beppegrillo.it/2015/06/immigrati_italia_no_grazie.html one gets the impression that the Five Star Movement is not against immigration per se, but is against it because of the way in which it has been exploited to make money – immigrant management is more profitable than drug dealing, said Salvatore Buzzi whose comment was quoted by Grillo.
As for the treatment of dissenters, this does at times seem unreasonable but I’m sure Messrs Grillo and Casaleggio have their reasons one of which might be to ensure the party line is kept to at all costs – if it does not, then the 5 Star Movement risks becoming little more than the parties it wants to replace. The leadership style of Grillo and Casaleggio is not dissimilar to the way in which political parties are run in the UK – basically, the leader is the boss and the members do as they are told – if this does not happen, then parties simply fall apart as is happening to the PD and to Forza Italia (and as tends to happen to political parties in Italy anyway). Silvio Berlusconi I think understands that a united political party stands a much greater chance of being elected than one which is always bickering internally – and he managed to keep his government in power for a full term – something of a record in Italy.
Re the Marino case, the 5 Star people want him out so they can have a chance at being elected even if, as you mentioned on Twitter, they have no program for Rome (at least nothing public, anyway – one suspects a program exists). Renzi is a conundrum.
Being the “scrapper” he should offer his support to Marino and let Marino cut the rot out of the capital however, seeing as Renzi needs the support of as many members of parliament as possible to push his reforms though, he has to keep certain people content – people who might well be mixed up in the mismanagement of Rome. In order to keep this support, Renzi would like Marino to go only he will know that if Marino goes, elections will be held and that the 5 Star Movement could win them, in which case Renzi will not be able to keep certain people in parliament happy and Italy won’t get reforms. Renzi is in a very difficult position as he probably knows. And his senate majority is wafer thin to non-existent. Not only this, but Renzi’s popularity is sliding.
Marino may still be pushed out but not until the 5 Star threat can be minimised although I have no idea how this will be done. We’ll see.
Kind regards,
Alex
Gian Giacomo Migone says
Dear Alex,
thank you once more for your concern for my country and Europe where we both belong.
Our disagreement boils down to one point. I believe anybody in politics should be kept to strict accountability, especially those who claim to innovate while keeping their eyes fixed on immediate electoral return, by blasting the past rather than trying to change it. In other words, what reforms, what alternative acts of government and style of leadership (Renzi’s problem), what plans of action, different leadership rather than increasing electoral appeal by refusing any positive change(M5S), throwiing out those who try to, like the mayor of Parma.
Sincerely Yours,
Gian Giacomo
Alex Roe says
Dear Gian Giacomo,
You are welcome, once again. Re strict accountability, I agree, but accountability is not one of the strong points of politics in Italy. Keeping ones eyes on an electoral return is, I feel, quite natural and something which Mr Renzi does and is doing (promises of tax cuts and end of tax on first homes, €80 handout). Indeed, electoral returns seem to dominate politics nowadays, and not only in Italy – this is something of a problem but without votes, you don’t get elected. If you are not elected, you cannot change much, if anything.
On the subject of plans of action, details of reforms (plus why they are needed and what the benefits to Italy will be) I agree – this is something which is rarely clear in the often opaque world of Italian politics.
I’ve tried, more than a few times, to find a plan of action on the PD website, but cannot so it’s not at all clear what the party’s objectives are aside from inane rhetoric such as ItaliaRiparte, for example. The UK Conservative Party has a section entitled Manifesto on its website and this gives people some idea of the direction the party wants to take the nation in. I cannot find a PD manifesto, nor have I found anything similar on the websites of other Italian political parties – with one exception – the Five Star Movement does have something similar to a manifesto and within it, certain objectives are, if rather briefly, outlined.
I think the M5S does want positive change and wants government that caters for all Italians, not simply for a few powerful lobbies as seems to be the case now. Blasting the past is a way of highlighting the fact that the system no longer works – but I agree that the M5S should devote a little more time to explaining how it is going to make the system function – this is not overly clear.
I think you mean the mayor of Rome, but on the subject of the mayor of Parma, it sounds as if he was not respecting the rules of the Five Star Movement, and there’s the incinerator question over which Pizzarotti has had to back down–which annoyed Grillo–who I suspect knows that as soon as one promise is broken or a rule is bent, others will follow and at the end of the day, promises and rules will mean nothing. If this happens, the Movement will become like the other political parties and die, as Mr Gillo knows.
While I hope the Five Star Movement shapes up into something practical and effective, it is not there yet – far from it. Even so, I still believe the Movement is the only political force which can bring about genuine and positive change for Italy. I hope I am right, but cannot predict the future.
Italy does, though, need much more medium and long term planning and the planners need to tell everyone why these plans will be good for Italy.
Best regards,
Alex
Gian Giacomo Migone says
I like a lot of what you say, also often find myself in agreement with 5star movement. Yet I have two fundamental questions to ask you and them: 1. What about immigration and race issues? 2. How do Grillo’s and Casaleggio’s roles affect democracy inside their movement?
If they could move aheado on these two issues, they could be an important piece of a better future for Italy.
Best,
Gian Giacomo Migone
Alex Roe says
Dear Gian Giacomo,
First, like you, I tend to agree which much of what the 5 Star Movement says and what it is doing – but it’s not perfect – who is?!
1. On the immigration and race front, I’m not too keen on the Movements’ stance but I think they want to protect Italians from what they see as something that is having a negative effect on Italy – though I’m not entirely sure why.
What the 5 Star people do not mention is that Italy already has an internal immigration problem – southerners heading north for a future – perhaps that issue needs more attention than immigration from outside of Italy which is not really the problem it is made out to be seeing as many migrants land in Italy and then head away from the country.
2. Yes, Grillo and Casaleggio do appear to be undemocratic but then leadership and democracy can have a hard time hand in hand. Both Grillo and Casaleggio appear to have taken more of a back seat but are probably guiding from the sidelines and I don’t see anything negative in this – the Movement has remained relatively coherent and is still more or less in one piece. Remember too that it’s a fledgeling party so it is bound to make mistakes. Strong leadership is essential to keep the Movement together and it is evolving into something which a greater number of Italy’s electorate may find palatable (poll results, for what they are worth, seem to indicate this).
And, yes, I would agree with you, the 5 Star Movement could make a contribution towards building a better future for Italy. Despite its various problems, Italy has enormous potential and I hope that one fine day, it will realise it. It must also be remembered that Italy is a very young nation and it still facing ‘growing pains’.
Best regards,
Alex