The 5 Star Movement is looking for a European political family. Starting next Monday, when the elections are over and the results are official, the absolute priority of the party led by Giuseppe Conte will be to get out of the limbo of the Non-attached Group, the equivalent of the Mixed Group in Strasbourg and Brussels. Belonging to this group effectively makes it impossible to aspire to top positions, such as presidency and vice-presidency of commissions, to personally manage legislative files and significantly reduces the speaking time available in the Chamber. In short, it condemns an inertia to which the 5 Stars don’t want to be relegated.
Green Hypotheses
In this legislature, several attempts have been made to bring the 5 Star Movement closer to the Green group, attempts which however have not been successful. For the next legislature Conte promised a “surprise”, claiming that the 5 Stars will find an agreement with a group from the “progressive” camp, which however will not be the socialists. Clearly, the Greens are the prime suspects this time too.
However, there are important differences with them on the issue of the war in Ukraine, with Die Grünen, the German environmentalists who are majority shareholders of the group (at least so far), firm supporters of the continued continuation of war support for Ukraine. This is too central a topic in the political debate, which would make convergence with the Movement which instead opposes the sending of weapons really difficult.
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Left hypothesis
Another possible scenario that is not ruled out in Brussels is that the home of the Movement could be the group The Left, that of the radical left, and in which any elected members of the Italian Left will also sit. On social issues and also on opposition to the war the group is certainly closer to the new Movement, although the ideological identity there is very marked. Everything will also depend a lot on the election results. In the latest polls, the five stars were given around 16 percent, which would potentially mean 14 MEPs, a good team that would appeal to many, both the Greens, given that their consensus is declining, and the Left.
Create a new group
But there are also those who hypothesize a different scenario, more complicated but not impossible, namely that of the foundation of a new group, just as happened in the first experience of the 5 Star Movement in Brussels. When the first group of Grillini was elected ten years ago, in 2014, they managed to organize a “marriage of convenience” with the British Eurosceptics of Nigel Farage’s UKIP. Together they managed to put together a group which was called Efdd, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, and which had Farage himself as its leader together with Davide Borrelli, an early Grillo and then “right-hand man” of Davide Casaleggio, who then broke with the Movement (and is now a member of Fratelli d’Italia after having passed through Emma Bonino’s + Europa).
Some hypothesize a similar move, but this time in the “progressive” camp, albeit a somewhat progressive camp Sui generis. The new group could be founded by Sahra Wagenknecht, one of the charismatic leaders of the German left, who recently left the Die Linke, to found a new party of the radical left, which however winks at issues dear to the right, such as the fight against irregular immigration and is considered by many to be “red-brown”. The undertaking is difficult but not impossible. To form a political group, at least 23 deputies from at least seven member states are needed. Other memberships would therefore be needed and among those eligible there are also the Slovak social democrats Smer-SSD of Prime Minister Robert Fico, who have been suspended from the socialist group. Four other countries would then be missing from the roll call.
The pitfalls
But this move would not solve the problems of the Movement, which aims for greater involvement in the European decision-making process. In all likelihood, the same ‘cordon sanitaire’ that was created around that of the far right of Identity and Democracy, in which Matteo Salvini’s League sits, would be formed against such a group. It is unlikely that deputies labeled as “Rossobruni” will be elected to top positions or that they will be entrusted with directives. Conte would find himself more at the center of controversy than anything else, just as happened with his joining the group with Farage, despite the fact that in 2017 the grillini managed the historic result of obtaining a vice-presidency of the Chamber with Fabio Massimo Castaldo (another defector, who now joined Action).
If the 5 Stars really want to be effective in the European decision-making process they just have to aim to join the Greens. They could have real power there. Of course, overcoming the resistance of German ecologists will not be easy, but a bad result from the latter could open the way to this possibility, although it remains complicated.
