Italy’s Five Star Movement gets ready to choose its candidate for PM

Italy's Five Star Movement has launched primaries to choose its candidate for prime minister in the upcoming general election.

Published: 18 September 2017 12:34 CEST

Italy's Five Star Movement gets ready to choose its candidate for PM

Luigi Di Maio, widely considered the favourite to win the primaries. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

The favourite is 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, who confirmed on Monday that he was putting himself forward for the position.

Writing in a Facebook post, Di Maio said: “We're still here, stronger than ever. Now we have to finish the job; let's get to Palazzo Chigi [the Italian Prime Minister's official residence] and make Italy rise up again.”

Di Maio is currently Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies – the youngest person to ever hold the office. A law student and good speaker, always dressed in a suit and tie, he is a very different figure to the party's 69-year-old co-founder and de facto leader, former comedian Beppe Grillo.

Though the 31-year-old has long been considered the favourite to lead the Five Star Movement in the next election, in theory any party member who has held an elected position (for example on a regional council or in one of the houses of parliament) and has never belonged to another political party is eligible to stand.

Would-be candidates had until midday on Monday to apply, and voting will take place this week, with the new party leader and Five Star candidate for Prime Minister set to be announced on Saturday.

The party uses an online voting system to choose candidates for official positions – as well as to vote on draft legislation and policies – as part of its aim of 'direct democracy'.

However, the voting system, which is officially called a “consultation tool”, has come under fire for a lack of transparency. A Sicilian court last week suspended the results of the Five Star Movement's regional primaries following a legal appeal by a candidate who was barred from the ballot by party leadership.

Former members have criticized the leadership's tight control over the system, as well as the fact that only a small number of supporters are signed up to the online votes: just 150,000, less than a quarter of whom actively participate in the voting, despite a total party membership of millions.

Earlier this year, Genoa candidate Marika Cassimatis was barred from the list, despite topping the poll, when Grillo judged some of her positions to be “contrary to the principles of his movement”. Writing on his blog later, the party leader did not expand on exactly what these positions, or the party principles supposedly violated, were, but instead called on members to “trust me”.

Cassimatis was among several politicians to criticize a rule published on Grillo's blog over the weekend, which stated that party members currently under investigation would be eligible to stand.

The rules state that such candidates are eligible to stand as long as they present a written report and documents relating to the case to party leadership.

Grillo hit back at the criticism in a separate blog post, pointing out that the regulation had been part of the party's Code of Ethics voted on by members in January. Party members found guilty of a criminal offence are ineligible to run – a rule which excludes Grillo himself, due to a conviction for manslaughter relating to a car accident in 1981.

The winner of this week's vote will not only be the Five Star Movement's candidate for prime minister, but will also become party leader. The two roles are not always held by the same person in Italian political parties, and the Movement has not previously had an official leader, something which tied into its philosophy of challenging the older 'establishment' parties.

The latest opinion polls in Italy show the Five Star Movement almost neck-and-neck with the ruling Democratic Party, both polling at around 30 percent of the vote. However, with no party set to win an outright majority, it is very unclear what the next Italian government would look like.

This is primarily because neither of the two front-runners have an obvious ally. Joining forces with one of the 'old' parties would be disastrous for the anti-establishment image of the Five Star Movement, while the Democratic Party is too far ideologically removed from the far-right Northern League to form an alliance, and would likely be forced to ally with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, a coalition which has proved troublesome in the past.

The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.