The Movement from the stars to the stables
Di Maio breaks with populism and sovereignty and, in open contrast to Conte, praises Draghi. Federico Guiglia's notebook
In the Senate chamber, Mario Draghi had asked for unity in order to best represent Italy at tomorrow's European Council dedicated above all to Ukraine. And unity, the Prime Minister has obtained: the resolution that supports the government's firm position on war, and that does not contemplate second thoughts on the sending of weapons to the attacked country – as instead Giuseppe Conte and members of the M5S invoked in recent days-, passes with the majority vote and the abstention of the right-wing opposition: 219 yes and just 20 no.
To extinguish any controversy, it was enough for the document, filed down to the last by the coalition, to reaffirm the involvement of Parliament before approving new measures on the conflict.
A sop to the five stars that does not affect Draghi's strategy: the maximum possible help in Kiev and, at the same time, the commitment to fight with Europe for a peace that must be accepted first of all by the Ukrainians, that is, by the victims of the invasion.
The rupture that has been averted in the majority, on the other hand, takes place within the main party that constitutes it. The foreign minister and most representative figure of the M5S, Luigi Di Maio , leaves and founds a new group (“Together for the future”) in contrast with the politics of his no longer party. He breaks with populism and sovereignty and, in open contrast to Conte, praises Draghi.
The farewell is only the latest confirmation of a rift announced between the institutional and governmental soul and the movementist soul of the origins. So much so that the former Alessandro Di Battista, former exponent of the hard and pure wing, comments as follows: “Ignoble betrayal”. The opponents accuse Di Maio of preferring seats to programs. The rags fly, but the tear also derives from the disaster of the administrative vote and the ambiguous line in foreign policy attributed to Conte and not disavowed by Grillo. "Some leaders of the movement risked weakening Italy," accuses Di Maio. He and the splinters, who would represent – they say – a quarter of the parliamentary group, now claim a clear choice of field, European and Western, with respect to an M5S that has changed too many ideas, positions and principles along the way.
From the "vaffa" in the square to the entrance to Palazzo Chigi: a parable full of contradictions that the strong differences on the war have detonated.
(Published in The Arena of Verona, Il Giornale di Vicenza and Bresciaoggi)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/il-movimento-dalle-stelle-alle-stalle/ on Fri, 24 Jun 2022 07:11:55 +0000.