Italy's anti-establishment 5-Stars pull ahead

ROME - Like elsewhere in Europe and in the United States, Italy has seen a rising tide of anti-establishment sentiment and an eclectic grassroots movement is aiming for early elections and 40 percent of the vote now that polls have placed it well ahead of the ruling but fractured Democratic Party.

Italians are increasing looking to comedian Beppe Grillo's 5-Star Movement as a viable alternative to traditional parties that have dominated politics for decades, even though the group has suffered its share of mistakes and scandal.

"Do you think that the political categories of left and right can still interpret the desires and impulses, the passions and ideas of a young 20-something European?" 5-Star lawmaker Alessandro Di Battista asked. "Absolutely not."

Di Battista spoke on the same day Italy's Corriere della Sera published a new poll showing the 5-Stars with 32.3 percent of the vote, compared to 26.8 percent for the ruling Democratic Party. It was the widest margin the 5-Stars have enjoyed, thanks in part to a recent splintering within the Democrats.

The poll, by the Ipsos institute, counted 33.6 percent of Italians still undecided, and was conducted before a new controversy over Grillo's choice for a candidate for Genoa mayor. But analysts suggested Italians are far more fed up with the Democrats and will forgive a few hiccups or flat-out errors by the newcomers.

"Let's give the 5-Star movement a chance and see if things in this country really do change," said Antonio Mollica, a 58-year-old truck driver who attended a 5-Star rally last weekend in Turin to protest the influence of the banking establishment on politics.

While Mollica is a typical 5-Star voter, the movement's appeal isn't confined to the working class electorate that was so crucial to Donald Trump's victory in the US or the Brexit vote in Britain. Nor is the 5-Star platform easily located on a typical political map, with its staunch environmentalism living side-by-side with its anti-euro, anti-bank ethos.

"There is a myth to dispel, as very often we connect the 5-Star Movement voter to a less cultured electorate with lower socio-demographic features," said Gianluca Giansante, a political-science professor at Rome's Luiss university. "Today, college professors, architects and teachers vote the 5-Star Movement just as any other party."

But Grillo has come under fire after he vetoed the candidate chosen online by his base for mayor of his hometown, Genoa. The 5-Stars are known for this form of "direct democracy," and Grillo's decision to field another candidate has soured some supporters.

But Di Battista defended Grillo's decision, saying he is the "guarantor" of the movement and clearly had information that the candidate selected by the 5-Star's online vote didn't necessarily uphold all the movement's ideals or platforms.