The Five Star Movement is chaotic, but as popular as ever

THE funeral in Milan on October 15th of Dario Fo, Italy’s irrepressibly subversive Nobel laureate for literature (see Obituary), may have seemed like a commemoration of the old, Marxist left. On the rain-sodden Piazza del Duomo, clenched fists were raised, a Che Guevara banner unfurled and the great jester dispatched to his grave with a rendering of “Bella Ciao”, the anthem of Italy’s partisans in the second world war.

Yet the best-known mourners were not Marxists at all. They included the founder of the Five Star Movement (M5S), Beppe Grillo (pictured); the mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi; and other leading figures in what has become Italy’s main opposition group. Late in life, Mr Fo transferred his enthusiasm from the radical left to the M5S. He even wrote a book with Mr Grillo and the party’s co-founder, the late Gianroberto Casaleggio, explaining its ideas. These include attacking corruption in Italy’s mainstream parties, transcending the conventional distinction between right...Continue reading

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