Italy's 'UKIP' launches drive for euro referendum as five-year depression drags on
Italy's Cinque Stelle throws down the gauntlet, warns Europe to come "well-armed" if it means to encroach any further on Italian sovereignty
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
8:10PM BST 13 Oct 2014
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The Five Star movement is led by comedian-politician Beppe Grillo Photo: Reuters
Italy’s Five Star Movement has launched a petition drive for withdrawal from the euro to lift the country out of depression and protect Italian democracy, a dramatic turn for a country that was passionately pro-European for sixty years. “We must leave the euro as soon as possible,” said Beppe Grillo, the combative comedian-politician and founder of the protest party that swept into Italy’s parliament last year with 26pc of the vote.
“We will collect half a million signatures in six months - a million signatures - and we will take our case to parliament, and this time thanks to our 150 legislators, they will have to talk to us.”
Gianroberto Casaleggio, party’s economic strategist, said the movement had set out its minimum demands in May, calling for Eurobonds and the abolition of the EU Fiscal Compact, a straitjacket that will force Italy into decades of debt-deflation. “Five months have gone by and we have had no reply. They have totally ignored us,” he said.
Any referendum would not be binding but the party may be able to push through a “law of popular initiative” if eurosceptics in other parties join forces. Italians have become bitterly disenchanted with Europe after a 9pc fall in GDP over the last five and a half years, and a 24pc fall in industrial output.
Most voters think it was a mistake to join the euro but are wary of withdrawal, fearing that a return to the lira would risk a crippling crisis. Even so Datamedia Ricerche poll in March found that 59pc would view a return to the lira as a good idea.
Most voters think it was a mistake to join the euro but are wary of withdrawal, fearing that a return to the lira would risk a crippling crisis. Even so Datamedia Ricerche poll in March found that 59pc would view a return to the lira as a good idea.
Italy’s GDP has fallen back to levels first reached fourteen years ago, a catastrophic reversal unseen in any major country in modern times, even during the 1930s. It has lost 40pc in labour competitiveness against Germany since the mid-1990s, and is now trapped inside EMU with an over-valued exchange. It cannot cut easily cut wages with an “internal devalution” because this would cause havoc for debt dynamics.
The Five Star Movement – or Cinque Stelle – won more votes than any other party in elections last year with a Left-leaning, slightly anarchist, Green agenda, and blistering attacks on entrenched elites. It is has 108 deputies in the lower house, and 54 senators.
The party sees its critique of EMU as a defence of Italian sovereignty against unelected EU officials, thought to be running roughshod over Italian democracy. “I don’t give away my sovereignty to anybody. My grandfather fought with the partisans for three years. If you want my sovereignty, you have to come and take it, not by waving some letter from the ECB. You have to come well-armed, as they tried once before,” said Mr Casaleggio.
The party is enraged by what it deems to be the high-handed policies of the European Central Bank, accused of toppling premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2011 and demanding sweeping reforms in Italy. “Mario Draghi is not a member of the government and I don’t know with what authority he demands these reforms,” said Mr Casaleggio.
Cinque Stelle has been eclipsed this year by the dramatic rise of Italy young premier Matteo Renzi, the yet party has not faded away. It came second in the European elections in May, winning 21.5pc. Its 17 MEPs sit with UKIP in Strasbourg.
Mr Renzi is now having to grapple with a triple-dip recession that has come as a profound shock, shattering assumptions that the crisis is over and that the eurozone is on the cusp of a fresh cycle of self-sustaining recovery. He is being forced to make yet more austerity cuts to meet EU deficit rules, risking further economic contraction, and perpetuating the same vicious cycle that engulfed his predecessors. Such a scenario plays straight into the hands of Beppe Grillo
The Five Star Movement – or Cinque Stelle – won more votes than any other party in elections last year with a Left-leaning, slightly anarchist, Green agenda, and blistering attacks on entrenched elites. It is has 108 deputies in the lower house, and 54 senators.
The party sees its critique of EMU as a defence of Italian sovereignty against unelected EU officials, thought to be running roughshod over Italian democracy. “I don’t give away my sovereignty to anybody. My grandfather fought with the partisans for three years. If you want my sovereignty, you have to come and take it, not by waving some letter from the ECB. You have to come well-armed, as they tried once before,” said Mr Casaleggio.
The party is enraged by what it deems to be the high-handed policies of the European Central Bank, accused of toppling premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2011 and demanding sweeping reforms in Italy. “Mario Draghi is not a member of the government and I don’t know with what authority he demands these reforms,” said Mr Casaleggio.
Cinque Stelle has been eclipsed this year by the dramatic rise of Italy young premier Matteo Renzi, the yet party has not faded away. It came second in the European elections in May, winning 21.5pc. Its 17 MEPs sit with UKIP in Strasbourg.
Mr Renzi is now having to grapple with a triple-dip recession that has come as a profound shock, shattering assumptions that the crisis is over and that the eurozone is on the cusp of a fresh cycle of self-sustaining recovery. He is being forced to make yet more austerity cuts to meet EU deficit rules, risking further economic contraction, and perpetuating the same vicious cycle that engulfed his predecessors. Such a scenario plays straight into the hands of Beppe Grillo
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