11 January 2019

EurActiv: Five Star Movement unveils plan to form EU Parliament group

Promoting direct democracy and reducing overspending in politics are among the priorities that the Five Star Movement’s new political group in the EU Parliament will look to promote in a manifesto to be published in the run-up to the 2019 European elections.

Brexit will take the eurosceptic UKIP out of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) parliamentary group, where Five Star Movement MEPs are currently sitting. And it’s not clear whether the EFDD will survive after the May European elections, leaving the Five Star Movement looking for new potential allies.

Di Maio met the leaders of Poland’s right-wing Kukiz’15, Croatia’s populist Zivi Zid and Finland’s liberal Liike Nyt, with the purpose of bringing them in for to a future political group to be formed in the European Parliament after the May elections.

Talks with other European parties are ongoing, Di Maio told Italy’s newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. But the Five Star Movement is also waiting an answer from the French “yellow vests” movement.

In a blog post published on the party’s official website, Di Maio expressed his support to the “yellow vests” movement. But for the moment it is not clear whether the movement will succeed to organise itself as a political entity in the run-up to the elections. [...]

A 10-point Manifesto to be signed in Rome around mid-February will highlight the common values shared by the different allies in the new political group. Signatory parties will have a free vote on any matter, as is already the case in the current EFDD group.

The Five Star Movement wants the new group “to tip the balance in Europe”. But the modest dimension of the potential allies contacted so far indicate that the Five Star Movement will dominate the new group. [...]

Full article on EurActiv

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