The Italian government is licking its wounds after losing a high-profile showdown with Brussels over its next budget. And Di Maio’s 5Star Movement is slipping in the polls, increasingly eclipsed by its coalition partner, the far-right League led by Matteo Salvini.
“My impression is that it’s not an anti-French move but an internal objective to show the base that they are still an innovative anti-establishment party,” said Giovanni Orsina, a professor of political history at LUISS University in Rome. “They need to show activists that they are still an anti-systemic force of resistance.” [...]
The anti-establishment sentiment behind the French protests is similar to the early Vaffanculo (“Go f**k yourself”) protests that led to the creation of the 5Star Movement. [...]
5Star members generally don’t support the violence that has been seen in France, Lazzari said. “We are very pacifist as a movement but in any demo you get hooligans making trouble.”
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