Movimento Cinque Stelle

con una prefazione di Salvo Vitale

Scheda

Un reportage nel Belpaese segnato dalla più lunga campagna elettorale della storia della Repubblica. Un’analisi spietata dell’avanzata sia delle organizzazioni neofasciste che dell’exploit dei due partiti populisti e sovranisti, i Cinque Stelle e la Lega, e i legami che collegano queste organizzazioni che vanno ben oltre le coincidenze dei temi, ma che si coagulano in una relazione politica ed economica con la rete dell’estrema destra internazionale. Nomi, date, fatti. Razzismo, autoritarismo, furbizie e rapporti innominabili. E ancora il crollo dell politica tradizionale che, consapevole della propria debolezza davanti all’avanzare della marea populista, cerca in extremis di rincorrere goffamente le parole d’ordine della nuova politica populista snaturando il proprio bagaglio culturale senza ottenere alcun consenso. Ritornano i fantasmi del passato, le analogie inquietanti di un clima di disfacimento etico e costituzionale che condusse fra gli anni ‘20 e gli anni ‘30 all’ascesa del fascismo e del nazional-socialismo. In un’Europa che sembra disfarsi del proprio vincolo di rifiuto del conflitto.
Orsatti, nelle prima pagine del libro, parla esplicitamente della« resa dei partiti di sinistra davanti al populismo e ai temi della destra neofascista. È il rincorrere le paure del “popolo degli spaventati” e quando cede la paura via di corsa ad alimentarla. E allora la propaganda vuota di idee e piagnona. E allora gli “invasori feroci” travestiti dolosamente da povera gente in fuga. E allora tutti corrotti e tutti ladri. E allora gli armati nelle nostre città a garantire un’illusione di sicurezza. E allora le fake news a invadere i social network e i titoli incendiari dei giornali del cosiddetto centro destra e lo strillo del popolino pronto al pogrom in diretta televisiva. La politica immobile, le idee ridotte a sussurri e i diritti materia di scambio».

This study examines the discourse of Beppe Grillo, founder of the Five Star Movement, a populist political movement created on his personal blog in 2009. This case study analyzes three of the texts published on Grillo’s blog about the constitutional referendum proposed by the ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in 2016 by applying various linguistic models from the field of Critical Discourse Analysis to demonstrate some of the most salient linguistic patterns that coincide with characteristics commonly found in populist discourse. By examining the sociopolitical background of the movement, this study also aims to reveal the significance of the blog as a tool in the success of their campaign against the referendum. We seek to place Grillo’s discourse within the realm of populist discourse by observing how he utilizes the referendum to promote his movement and challenge the established parties of Italy.

(co-authored with Fortunato Musella) The emergence of personalized party organizations has called for a redefinition of the concept of party institutionalization (PI). This article brings different strands of literature together and proposes a new multidimensional index of PI. PI is conceived of as the interplay of objective and internal party features with the external environment. The viability of the index is tested through its application to a prominent case of personal party, the Italian Five Star Movement (5SM). Through a detailed analysis of its history, we show that the 5SM has become more institution-alized over time; however, this has especially affected its external facet, while other specific party traits have been less involved. Findings suggest that the stabilization of internal structures to connect party echelon and rank-and-file remains a challenge

This book investigates the changing meanings of power and politics in the Internet age and questions whether the political category of the citizen still has a meaningful role to play in the highly-mediated dynamics of an increasingly networked world. To answer such questions, the book analyses and compares the impact of the Internet on the relationship between state, citizens, and politics in three countries: the USA, Italy, and China. The book’s journey starts in the mid-90s and ends in 2016. It pays particular attention to Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns,  the ascendance to power in Italy of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, and to the enduring Chinese government’s struggle to control the Internet public opinion.

The book challenges the traditional understanding of power through which the strong typically prevails over the weak. This leads to a clearer understanding of the wider role citizens can play (and must play) in a networked political sphere, while it also warns the reader on the many risks citizens face in a post-truth world.
The book challenges the traditional understanding of power through which the strong typically prevails over the weak. This leads to a clearer understanding of the wider role citizens can play (and must play) in a networked political sphere.

See it at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-3293-7

This article is aimed to shed light over the political discourse articulated by the Five Star Movement MPs, by which they strongly opposed the programmatic speeches of the Prime Minister, during the parliamentary debate about the cabinet's vote of confidence in Italian Chamber of Deputies. A comparative analysis of two sets of MPs speeches is carried out, respectively held in 2013 (Prime Minister Enrico Letta) and in 2014 (Prime Minister Matteo Renzi). The results show that the populist traits fully emerge in M5S's parliamentary communication in the latter case, being more "masked" in 2013. In the conclusions, I try to account for these variations in MPs' speeches.

Engaging debates within cultural studies, media and communication studies, and critical theory, this book addresses whether Gramscian thought continues to be relevant for social and cultural analysis, in particular when examining times of crisis. The book is motivated by two intertwined but distinct purposes: first, to show the privileged and fruitful link between a Gramscian theory of communication and a communicative theory of Gramsci; second, to explore the ways in which such an “integral” perspective can help us interpret and explain different forms of political activism in the twenty-first century, such as Occupy Wall Street in the US, Indignados and Podemos in Spain, or Movimento Cinque Stelle in Italy.

According to several scholars, the politicization of issues connected to immigration and the European Union (EU) has generated a demarcation-integration cleavage that now structures political competition in Western Europe. Italy is an interesting case for studying this process, as two 'different' populist-Eurosceptic parties, namely the Northern League (LN) and the Five Star Movement (M5S), have managed to form a governmental coalition (the so-called yellow-green coalition) by politicizing these two issues. This paper proposes a multifaceted conceptu-alisation of the EU and the immigration issues to investigate how LN and M5S position themselves across their multiple sub-dimensions. This empirical analysis is based on an original dataset of parliamentary speeches delivered by the two parties' representatives in two distinct institutional arenas: the Italian and the European parliaments. The results show that LN's positions are guided by cultural-identitarian and sovereignist arguments, while M5S mobilizes the two issues to boost its anti-elitist claims. More importantly, the paper shows how nu-anced the two parties' positioning on the integration-demarcation dimension is, something that points to possible 'wedges' in the current governing coalition in Italy.

The Italian Five Star Movement (FSM) is one of the most interesting political phenomena in contemporary Europe. On one hand, this populist anti-establishment party has expressed a critical, albeit ambiguous, position on the European Union and the euro. In particular, the FSM’s euroscepticism became apparent during the 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections. On the other hand, analysis of the voting behaviour in the EP shows that the Movement differs from the ‘hard’ eurosceptic UKIP, its main ally in the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) grouping, and is often closer to the pro-EU parties, in particular the Green group. Overall, the FSM’s euroscepticism is more strategic than ideological.

The European Union (EU) is a supranational entity that is formed by twenty-eight European states, and it is both an economic and political entity. The EU is often perceived as an immutable entity and the possibility of its collapse has not been explored in detail by political experts and scholars. However, in the EU are present several issues that might endanger its future existence. Overall, these issues create an imbalance of power that affect the stability and the aims of the EU project. To date, experts have focused on the analysis of the effects rather than the causes of EU’s fragility. This thesis argues that the causes of contemporary issues are found in the past. This thesis focuses on the imbalance of power in the EU, unpacking this through both contemporary and historical analysis of the EU. Due to the broadness of the topic, the thesis focuses mainly on three key aspects: the history of European attempts of unity, the current situation of the EU, and the nationalist-populist sentiment that re-emerged in Europe in the recent years. The thesis examines these three themes from a historical and political point of view, using policy and media analysis as wells as core political theory. It examines the nationalist-populist phenomenon through a case study on the Italian Five Star Movement, arguably the first openly populist party to govern a major EU country.  Overall, the thesis demonstrates that the EU is burdened by historical legacies and, if it not solved, these will lead to the failure of the EU project.

The 5 Stars Movement, defined as populist or protest movement and founded by a comedian in 2009, began to shout its message with rude words, organizing “V Days” that summarized its belief in the 4 letter word (“V” stands for the latter) .
Although initially heavily criticized, in the 2018 political Italian elections they have taken more votes than any other Party.
This contribution, firstly aims to show how and why that vulgar dialectic has eventually been not just tolerated but even shared by the electorate and in what sense, paradoxically, just that crudeness has been chosen to convey principles of honesty and transparency.
Secondly, this analysis aims to represent a cross-section of the contemporary Italian society and its use of language in official cultural contexts such as the political ones.
In conclusion, this paper intends to offer students of Italian language and culture a  perspective of comprehension of the socio-cultural-linguistic mechanisms of current Italy.

After two years of presence within the European Parliament (EP), is it possible to define the Five Star Movement (M5S) position regarding the European Union? Are these stances similar or different from the rhetoric used by the party leadership about EU? And which are the parties in the EP with which it shares similar policy positions? As a matter of fact, there is a certain confusion in defining Grillo’s Movement position about European integration. The aim of the article is to enquire whether the M5S is taking political stances similar to those of Eurosceptic (and right wing) parties or if it is showing a different inclination, more similar to those assumed by pro Europe or Euro critical parties of the left and the new left. To accomplish this task, the article will take into consideration the M5S’ voting behaviour within the EP on several policy areas which are salient for the European Union policy making. The first part of the article will be focused on the explanation of the M5S’s growth and to the review of the concept of Euroscepticism. In the last part the M5S’s votes concerning the policies related to the pro/anti integration, GAL/TAN and Left/Right cleavages, will be compared to the ones expressed by the Eurosceptic and leftist parties within the EP, to understand with which group there is the highest agreement rate. Thanks to the evidence produced it will be possible to define: (a) to which part of the EP political spectrum the M5S is closer, (b) provide a first in depth and descriptive analysis of the M5S’ political behaviour within the supranational arena.

L'avènement des « marques politiques » s’inscrit dans une dédifférenciation généralisée du champ de la consommation. Partis et candidats doivent désormais s’adapter à une demande ponctuelle et changeante, certains allant jusqu’à adopter une logique de marque comme le montre l’exemple classique de Ségolène Royal et de sa campagne pionnière lors des présidentielles françaises de 2007.
Par conséquent, l’enjeu de cette recherche est d’appréhender les propriétés socio-sémiotiques et communicationnelles de cette « mise en marque » (du) politique. Un glissement vers le domaine des marques qui se traduirait par l’avènement d’un « consumérisme politique », nouveau vecteur d’engagement citoyen. Ce concept permet en effet d’examiner la façon dont la souveraineté du consommateur s’impose peu à peu comme modèle de souveraineté politique. Un consumérisme politique qui déboucherait sur une dynamique de jugement en continu, favorisée par les réseaux socionumériques, et sur l’émergence de communautés de marques politiques autonomes intervenant dans le processus de co-construction de l’offre politique. En effet, plusieurs mouvements nés en
ligne arrivent dorénavant à se structurer et décident de s’aventurer dans l'arène démocratique. Les exemples du Parti Pirate, du Tea Party aux États-Unis et du Movimento Cinque Stelle en Italie illustreront ces nouveaux types de mobilisation qui résultent de l’agrégation de consomm-acteurs politiquement engagés hors du carcan des partis traditionnels.