The Five Star "no" to the MES or the attempt to recover the lost identity

The time has come to approve Italy's General State Budget for 2021 and, now that the draft has been sent, it is time to debate it in Parliament before getting the final "go-ahead", which in principle should take place on the eve of Christmas. Although in principle a majority seems to be assured of a favourable vote on them, it is not all that clear. The fact is that the four parties that make up the coalition (Five Stars, PD, Italia Viva and LeU) have yet to reach an agreement on whether or not to include the 37 billion that the country would need to join the MES, better known as the "State-Saving Mechanism". And the agreement has not been reached because precisely the most important member of the coalition (Five Stars, which has over half the deputies and senators needed to carry out the votes) does not wish to avail itself of the aforementioned MES.

The question is: why is Five Stars so strongly opposed to the MES? At the time it made sense because, being in a coalition with Salvini's Lega (a markedly anti-European party), they could say that the refusal to join it was part of the so-called "government contract" signed in the last week of May 2018. But now, with a galloping recession as a result of the standstill in economic activity brought about by the coronavirus, it is difficult to understand why Five Stars is still saying "no" to the application of this financial mechanism, compared to the favourable position of its three coalition partners.

Beyond the natural tendency of this peculiar formation to say "no" to everything (both Salvini, between 2018 and 2019, and PD and Renzi, between 2019 and the present, have suffered this in their flesh), it seems clear that what is behind it is the increasingly important need for a party to recover its identity in the face of the evidence that it is completely blurred. And for this it is necessary to understand the foundations on which this party built its victory in the last general elections.

In addition to being the "party of traditional anti-politics", which was accused of corruption and inefficiency, the Five Stars Movement distinguished itself during its years in opposition (2013-18) by a strong overbearing of the formation that was in control of the government, which was none other than the Democratic Party (PD). A PD from which the three presidents of the Council of Ministers of the legislature emerged: Letta, Renzi and Gentiloni. But now it so happens that the PD has gone from being its main enemy to the government's most important ally, and they cannot even resort to the hackneyed "anti-Renzi" discourse because the formation of the latter has the fundamental votes to sustain the current government majority.

What is more, the fundamental measure with which they ran for election (the citizenship income) has not only failed to reach the amount promised to the target population, but also seems to be starting to have its days numbered, returning, no doubt, to the "social insertion income" that already existed in the PD's time, and whose economic amount is nearly half that offered in the "citizenship income" (420 in the former and nearly 800 in the latter). And the worst thing for this party is that the first to think that this "citizenship income" should be brought to an end ("more investment and less assistance", Matteo Renzi often insists) is precisely its only relevant figure, Prime Minister Conte, who, increasingly close to the almost 1,000 days of government between his two consecutive executives, is increasingly distancing himself from this party, recalling, among other things, that he has never served in it.

All of them should be reminded of the perception they have among Italians of being a party that does nothing but wander: first it supported Salvini's harsh immigration policy and assured him his parliamentary immunity, then I go and feel him in the dock without any consideration and, furthermore, not just once but twice (for an alleged hijacking of two boats, the "Gregoretti" and the "Open Arms"); or, to put it another way, first it supported Salvini's security decrees and then voted to make them obsolete. Not to mention that he now accepts Minister Lamorgese's immigration policy when a year earlier he had more than openly supported Salvini's constant confrontation with the EU authorities over this issue or the General State Budget.

In fact, although it is true that this party has in principle more than two years to get back on its feet before facing new general elections, its main problem is its very evident incompetence when it comes to governing, after years of harsh criticism of those who carried out this work. Let us take just one example of this, which is none other than the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in August 2018. 

Thus, from the very first moment it became clear that it was the consequence of very serious mistakes made by Autostrade per l'Italia, the company that held the concession for this viaduct, and which in turn was owned by the very powerful Atlantia, which had among its main shareholders a family of the relevance of the Benetton family. The reality is that, while the directors of this company were looking for a compensation formula (although there is never money to compensate for the loss of 43 human lives) as well as offering an immediate reconstruction of the viaduct, the then party leader and deputy prime minister Di Maio could not think of anything better than to look for the culprits in the previous governments: once again, they did not offer solutions, they only thought about who to throw the accusing finger at. 

Moreover, in order to avoid an alleged political corruption, they claimed that the reconstruction would be carried out by the Italian state: in other words, a private company had committed a serious negligence that should be paid for by the suffering Italian taxpayers out of their own pockets. And, to complete a demonstration of incompetence, the then Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Danilo Toninelli, could not think of a better idea than to threaten the cancellation or "revocation" of all state contracts with Atlantia, which would have meant having to compensate the owners of Atlantia with around 20 million euros. And, once again, the public was stunned by the behaviour of a party that one in three voters had given their trust to at the polls only a few months earlier.

Before the matter could be prevented from getting any worse, the resolution had to be put forward by someone from another party (Minister Paola de Micheli, Toninelli's replacement at the head of the ministry and a member of the PD), Prime Minister Conte, and even the intervention of the president of the Republic himself (Sergio Mattarella, a figure of enormous personal prestige) became necessary. Atlantia accepted the corresponding sanction and it was not necessary for the state to compensate it. In this way further damage was avoided, but what was sufficiently clear was the natural incompetence of the Five Star leaders to deal with public management.

In a few weeks' time, specifically between 7 and 9 November, this party will hold its convention to elect a new leader or a collegiate leadership. Whatever happens, the party is in a simply lamentable state: Davide Casaleggio, considered the "totem" of the party's formation and son of the founder, no longer counts for anyone; and Alessandro di Battista, its most emerging figure, does not even have a parliamentary seat. So, in principle, if there is a new leader, and with a Di Maio more than amortised, it seems that the party will be led by one of the ministers who make up the second Conte government. But, beyond leadership, what can be offered to Italian society? The income of citizens, which is almost certainly not the case; measures of such importance, impact and effectiveness do not seem to be necessary either. So everything seems to come down to a refusal of the MES, but surely in this matter, as in so many others, they will once again act as a stream of transmission of who really governs, which is the PD together with Conte with the permanent vigilance of President Mattarella, who is always exquisitely careful not to step out of his role as head of state.

We already know that Italian politics is very, very unpredictable, and that it can bring surprises at any time. But, in the light of what we are seeing at the moment, it seems that Five Stars is beginning a clear agony and will be remembered for the famous "taglio" of the number of MPs, as well as for the honesty of its leadership. This is what he must have voted not "for" but "against", regardless of the contradictions of a speech. This is what the so-called "anti-politics" has, which only destroys and does not build, until it ends up destroying itself.

Pablo Martín de Santa Olalla Saludes is a researcher at the "Civismo" Foundation and author of the book Italia, 2013-2018. From chaos to hope  (Liber Factory, 2018)