Italy nears political turmoil

Seeing all the infighting in the Mulayam Singh family, the disappointment that is AAP and a general sense of disgust towards most politicians and their parties, sometimes we cannot help but wonder, “what if we had a party which is for unhappy voters?”

That is what precisely Italy’s seven year old party – Five Star Movement or known as M53 is all about. Today, it has become the country’s main opposition party, winning mayoral elections in Rome and Turin. M5S is not a party but an organisation set up to get rid of parties. The group’s claim that it is neither left- nor right-wing makes it a magnet for unhappy voters, but also prone to infighting.

Italy has a referendum coming up on 4th December and the word on the street is that it could lead to the fall of Matteo Renzi’s left-right coalition, pushing the country into political turmoil.  M5S was not started by any politician – it has two founders of which one is a celebrity comedian and the an IT executive. They first started airing their views on a blog, which went on to gain popularity and soon it had followers, which later led to meetups and then eventually the setting up on this movement.

Its distinguishing traits – no deals with the pre-existing parties, its cult-like nature and its insistence that it is neither of left nor right. But the sad part is that there is major infighting between the Left and Right wing M5S members and the office holders have no previous experience – the Mayor of Rome is labelled as a disaster. Sounds a lot like AAP, doesn’t it?