Italy’s populist Five Star Movement is becoming a more normal party

SOME SEE Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) as a destabilising force which, by refusing to ally itself with mainstream parties, logjammed Italian politics for years. Others see it as an eccentric but original group that genuinely cares about corruption, the environment and using digital technology to give ordinary people a voice in politics. Depending on which view you take, the online referendum of M5S’s members held on August 13th-14th was either a triumph or a disaster, because they ditched two of its core principles.