Italy’s Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle, M5S) has both a short and a long history. Let’s begin with the short history.

It is part of a broad phenomenon called anti-establishment ideology, which is the backbone of populism.

Silvio Berlusconi is back at the centre of Italian politics, following a conviction for tax fraud and a public office ban. Two sets of causes may explain his return to the political arena: one “internal”, and one “external”. Before analysing these causes, a premise is essential.

Berlusconi is back because he never went away. 

The elections of the new Parliament in Italy (March 4) take place this year around the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis. It is not just a coincidence, but a reminder of a particular situation in Italy between February and March 2013:

In a fresh effort to shore up his Democratic Party’s faltering position in the opinion polls less than 2 months before the March general election, Matteo Renzi has now decided to play the “Europe” card. In a specially-convened “mini-convention” in Milan, the former Prime Minister called on his party’s Europarliamentarians to follow the example of Emmanuel Macron in France and Martin Schulz in Germany,

On March 4, 2018 Italian voters will go the polls to elect both chambers of its national Parliament. Many observers expect the outcome to be a hung Parliament, with no party or group of parties capable of expressing a majority and therefore supporting a government.