Rome, June 23 (BNA): The Italian political scene shifted today, Wednesday, after Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio officially announced his departure from the Five Star Movement, splitting with the party he helped found over his Ukraine policy and other disagreements.
Di Maio announced his departure after Prime Minister Mario Draghi briefed the Senate on Italy’s continued commitment to helping Ukraine.
The House speaker made the official announcement Wednesday that Di Maio’s new “Together for the Future” movement would be represented in the House, citing 50 five-star lawmakers who defected to Di Maio, the Associated Press reported.
News reports said about a dozen five-star senators also defected, making the right-wing League now the majority party in parliament.
Despite the new cabinet reshuffle, the stability of Draghi’s broad coalition government was not in doubt, and the current five-star leadership vowed to continue support. While the League has a majority based on the results of the 2018 elections, the party has fallen significantly in opinion polls and local election results since then, and now follows the right-wing Brotherhood in Italy and the Democratic Party in parliamentary elections scheduled for next year.
The five-star earthquake capped weeks of tensions in the movement fueled by disagreements over Italy’s Ukraine policy and personal differences between Di Maio and the Five Star leader, former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Conte called on Italy to stop sending weapons to Ukraine and focus more on a diplomatic solution, leading to a split with Di Maio, who as foreign minister is responsible for implementing policy.
“We had to decide which side of history we were going to be,” Di Maio said at a late-night news conference.
But the recent five-star turmoil was just the latest setback for the party that was founded as a popular anti-establishment movement and culminated in the 2018 parliamentary elections, after which it emerged as the majority party in Parliament.
But in recent years, his popular support has seen a sharp decline and a fundamental collapse, as the party leadership has sought to stay in power by forging alliances with the right, the left and, more recently, Draghi’s broad coalition.
Other political leaders were quick to capitalize on the development, with former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi cheering what he said was the “end” of the five-star experience.
“It’s always been a political experience we’ve had because we thought it was bad for the country,” he wrote on Twitter. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. Let’s get back to the serious stuff, to the politics.”
League leader Matteo Salvini has vowed not to seek new government positions as a result of his party’s new parliamentary majority, saying he does not seek “thrones”. Instead, he called for new measures to help Italians struggling with rising gas and energy prices.
“The government cannot be obstructed by the unrest in the Five Star Movement,” he said.
For his part, Conte shrugged off questions about whether he would resign his leadership of the party, and said the Five Stars are not going anywhere and remain committed to pursuing social justice and Italy’s environmental and digital transformation.
“We remain strong with our values, our ideals and our political project,” he told reporters on Wednesday.