The Guardian’s view of Italy’s divided opposition: A five-star revolution can help unite the left | editorial

PPolitical scientists have long argued that a defining feature of populism is the distinction between a “pure people” and a “corrupt elite.” In the turbulent politics of the early 21st century, few public figures have represented this worldview with as much vigor and impact as Italian comedian Beppe Grillo.

In the 2010s, Mr. Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S) temporarily emerged as the most successful and quixotic populist party in Europe, taking first place by a significant margin in the 2018 Italian elections. Its characteristic principles were a belief in the power of direct democracy and the conviction that traditional left-right politics should be replaced by a popular revolt against it la casta – the privileged elite, whose power remained independent of the ruling government. People’s power was mobilized through the party’s Rousseau platform, designed by M5S co-founder and internet evangelist Gianroberto Casaleggio as a forum for online democracy.

Heady days, but that was back then. This month the power of direct democracy was used against Mr. Grillo himself. At a seismic conference, members voted to remove him from his $300,000-a-year post as “guarantor” of the party’s values. They also agreed to define the M5S’s politics as part of the progressive left and to lift the two-term limit on its MPs, allowing some of its more formidable figures to stand for re-election.

A furious Mr Grillo successfully insisted that a repeat vote be held this week. But the specified direction of travel seems irreversible. M5S’s poll numbers have fallen sharply in recent years. Flip-flopping decisions to form a governing coalition with the radical right and then the center-left, as well as a major split over aid to Ukraine, have taken their toll.

But the party remains a significant force in Italy’s divided opposition, whose inability to unite paved the way for Giorgia Meloni to seize power two years ago. Against Mr Grillo’s wishes, party leader Giuseppe Conte is determined to position M5S as a more conventional progressive party. In 2022, she ran a campaign to the left of the Democratic Party (PD) on issues such as citizens’ income and the minimum wage.

Mr. Grillo’s downfall, rejected by the movement he launched with such remarkable effect, carries an element of pathos. But under his dominant influence, M5S became an unpredictable and strange political animal, at one point allying with Nigel Farage’s Ukip in the European Parliament. Although he has taken a more distant role in recent years, the claim to be “beyond” ideology has often masked the tendency for policy to be decided according to Mr. Grillo’s personal preferences.

Mr Conte’s coup, if confirmed, opens the possibility of a more dynamic, united and powerful broad left in Italian politics. The M5S’s opposition to military aid to Ukraine could become a complicating factor in future national elections. But a political realignment that channels some of the grassroots idealism that accompanied the party’s rise could be game-changing.

Like other sister movements of the European center-left, the PD has associated itself too closely with the interests of the urban middle class, while populist parties on the radical right have been disproportionately successful. A resurgent M5S without Beppe Grillo could begin to restore balance.