Five Star Movement Case Study
Can Italy's M5S recover from Rome shambles to oust Renzi?
ROME, Italy - On December 4th, Italy's anti-establishment party, the Five Star Movement (M5S), can take a giant leap towards taking control of the country thanks to high-stakes referendum which threatens to topple the country's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.
Renzi has promised to step down as leader if his proposals to drastically reduce the power and influence of Italy's upper house are rejected. Renzi says his proposals to slash the number of senators from 315 to 100 will improve the country's snail-paced legislation, but the M5S insist the changes would drastically increase the country's well-documented corruption problems by curtailing the influence of the Senate.
If the M5S …show more content…
"Most people can accept it will take years, not months, for the results of good governance to shine through in this city,” he says.
Indeed, the successive failure of councils from across the political spectrum to successfully address Rome's underlying problems makes it unlikely the party's capital woes will damage their chances at national level.
"You can't ask for miracles," explained Virginio Carnevali, Italian President of anti-corruption NGO Transparency Italy. “Rome is ungovernable.”
Over the last decade, the city's spiraling debt has created rampant corruption inside council-run services, while over unionization means any attempt at implementing swift and effective changes to the way the city's infrastructure is managed almost impossible.
“It doesn't matter who is in charge, there are no shortcuts to sorting out Rome.”
'Attacked from all sides'
The M5S hierarchy insists its 'bottom up' approach to government will soon start to yield results in Rome and is and downplay any talk of a crisis. Instead they blame a hostile press for trying to sabotage the party's …show more content…
“One of the party's central electoral promises is to make it illegal for media institutions to take any political money, which is currently commonplace in Italy,” he explained. “As a result, everybody wants to discredit us and we get attacked from all sides.”
"The movement is young and bound to make mistakes,” Corrao explains, adding that the party is in good shape to take advantage of the potential political chaos caused if Renzi follows through with his ultimatum in the event of a no
ROME, Italy - On December 4th, Italy's anti-establishment party, the Five Star Movement (M5S), can take a giant leap towards taking control of the country thanks to high-stakes referendum which threatens to topple the country's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.
Renzi has promised to step down as leader if his proposals to drastically reduce the power and influence of Italy's upper house are rejected. Renzi says his proposals to slash the number of senators from 315 to 100 will improve the country's snail-paced legislation, but the M5S insist the changes would drastically increase the country's well-documented corruption problems by curtailing the influence of the Senate.
If the M5S …show more content…
"Most people can accept it will take years, not months, for the results of good governance to shine through in this city,” he says.
Indeed, the successive failure of councils from across the political spectrum to successfully address Rome's underlying problems makes it unlikely the party's capital woes will damage their chances at national level.
"You can't ask for miracles," explained Virginio Carnevali, Italian President of anti-corruption NGO Transparency Italy. “Rome is ungovernable.”
Over the last decade, the city's spiraling debt has created rampant corruption inside council-run services, while over unionization means any attempt at implementing swift and effective changes to the way the city's infrastructure is managed almost impossible.
“It doesn't matter who is in charge, there are no shortcuts to sorting out Rome.”
'Attacked from all sides'
The M5S hierarchy insists its 'bottom up' approach to government will soon start to yield results in Rome and is and downplay any talk of a crisis. Instead they blame a hostile press for trying to sabotage the party's …show more content…
“One of the party's central electoral promises is to make it illegal for media institutions to take any political money, which is currently commonplace in Italy,” he explained. “As a result, everybody wants to discredit us and we get attacked from all sides.”
"The movement is young and bound to make mistakes,” Corrao explains, adding that the party is in good shape to take advantage of the potential political chaos caused if Renzi follows through with his ultimatum in the event of a no