As of: 06/22/2022 5:22 p.m
The Italian Five Star Movement collapsed in the dispute over the Ukraine war. Foreign Minister di Maio has founded his own parliamentary group with around 50 members. However, this should not have any impact on the government.
Disagreements over the Ukraine war have led to an open rift within Italy’s Five Star Movement. On the initiative of the former leader of the movement and acting foreign minister, Luigi di Maio, around 50 five-star MPs formed their own parliamentary group.
These are now part of the new group “Insieme per il futuro” (“Together for the future”), said Chamber President Roberto Fico during a plenary session.
Di Maio supports Draghi’s course
Di Maio – once leader of the Five Star Movement – had left the populist anti-establishment party after disputes with the current party leader and former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. “I’m starting a new path with others looking to the future,” he said Tuesday.
The reason for the quarrels was the party’s position on arms deliveries to Ukraine, which Conte rejects. Di Maio, on the other hand, is considered to support Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s line. The Five Star Movement is part of Draghi’s multi-party government.
Government alliance in danger?
The internal fault lines had recently become more and more apparent. At the same time, the movement had crashed in the polls. “It is the end, an end that has been announced for some time” of the movement, predicted Piergiorgio Corbetta, a professor of social sciences at the University of Bologna.
Nevertheless, Corbetta sees the government “not necessarily in danger”. The international situation is forcing those responsible in politics to “show a minimum of political responsibility”.
“Nothing will change for the government,” assured ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of the Italia Viva splinter party on Rai Radio 1. The government would not topple.