The decline of the Five Star empire
Italy’s quirkiest party goes from hero towards zero
THE QUINCENTENARY of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, which is being marked this year, is a fine moment to savour the Italian talent for walking a step or two ahead of everybody else. The inventory of Italian brainwaves, from double-entry book-keeping to radio, is impressive. In politics, too, Italians have repeatedly anticipated trends and innovated—though not always happily, as with the invention of fascism. In 1968 students in Rome were rioting two months before ever a cobblestone was thrown in Paris. And if today’s right-wing populists have a spiritual father, he is surely Silvio Berlusconi. Like Donald Trump, that priapic property developer used TV to launch himself into politics and successfully marketed an idiosyncratic brand of personalised conservatism.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The decline of the Five Star empire”
Europe December 7th 2019
- Germany’s Social Democrats pick new leaders
- NATO marks its 70th anniversary in typically chaotic fashion
- Pension anxiety drives France on strike and onto the streets
- Malta’s prime minister is ousted by a murdered journalist’s work
- China tries, and fails, to influence the Czechs
- The decline of the Five Star empire
From the December 7th 2019 edition
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Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets
She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics
The maths of Europe’s military black hole
It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk
Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south
Vladimir Putin’s war machine is pushing harder and crushing Ukrainian morale
Vladimir Putin fires a new missile to amplify his nuclear threats
The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare
A rise in antisemitism puts Europe’s liberal values to the test
The return of Europe’s oldest scourge
Once dominant, Germany is now desperate
As an election looms its business model is breaking down