Uncertainty hovers over Italy’s M5S bid to join the EU Left

4 months ago 17

As Italy’s Five Star Movement (M5S) looks to Thursday’s decision on its membership of the European Parliament’s Left group, it remains to be seen whether its controversial past deals in a previous government with Matteo Salvini’s Lega will make the EU group look the other way.

In Thursday’s meeting it will be decided whether M5S will join a EU parliamentary group for the first time in its history, after the party announced on Wednesday that it had applied to join The Left.

The decision on M5S’s membership was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but it was postponed and made conditional on further assessment.

The meeting will aim to clarify the political positions and shared values between the two parties, after which The Left group is expected to make its decision on the eight 5-Star MEPs.

If the M5S were to join The Left, it would become the second largest delegation after La France Insoumise.

The M5S has declined to comment until a decision has been made.

The 24-hour delay was due to concerns from some national delegations about the M5S’s previous coalition government with Matteo Salvini’s Lega (ID) from 2018 to 2019.

Their government lasted just over a year before being toppled by Salvini himself, leading to a new coalition government between the M5S and the Democratic Party.

Lega, a far-right party allied with Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, is known for its hardline stance on immigration.

M5S leader Giuseppe Conte, who also served as prime minister in the subsequent government with the Democratic Party, later sharply criticised the immigration policies adopted during his coalition with Lega.

In 2019, Conte said, “the security decrees left tens of thousands of migrants on the streets, dispersed across suburbs and countryside.”

“The elimination of humanitarian protection prevented many migrants from entering the reception system and others from remaining in it, resulting in thousands becoming invisible,” he added then.

M5S was also allied to Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party in the European Parliament for five years.

“The door to the M5S is open, but there are clear political conditions. So, it’s up to them to decide,” said EU Left leader and La France Insoumise member Manon Aubry on Wednesday.

“We have several questions for them about their strategy in Europe and Italy, but the main issue is whether they feel part of the left-wing family’s history,” she added.

M5S tried to join the Greens but was rejected.

A few months ago, the co-spokespeople of the Italian Greens said: “M5S governed with the far-right in this country, violating migrants’ rights.”

(Alessia Peretti | Euractiv.it)