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Italy’s Five Star Movement leader urges split from UKIP in European Parliament

The head of Italy's populist Five Star movement (M5S) said on Sunday he wants to abandon a eurosceptic alliance in the European Parliament with Britain's UKIP party, which will leave the legislature after Brexit.

Published: 9 January 2017 08:55 CET

Italy's Five Star Movement leader urges split from UKIP in European Parliament

Beppe Grillo proposed, in a blog posting, that his anti-euro party instead align itself with a pro-EU group, drawing shock from supporters who have until Monday to vote on the question.

“The recent European developments, like Brexit, have led us to rethink the nature of the EFDD (Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy) group,” Grillo wrote, referring to its parliamentary grouping led by ex-UKIP head Nigel Farage.

“To remain a member of the EFDD is to face the next two-and-a-half years without a common political objective,” Grillo added.

UKIP is the single largest source of the grouping's members, raising the possibility it could fall apart once British MEPs leave the legislature at the end of their terms in 2019.

There can be no British members of the European parliament once Britain completes its planned exit from the bloc.

The political groupings are important because not only do they provide more political visibility and the possibility of chairing various committees, but also up to 30 million euros ($32 million) in funding during the parliament's five-year term.

Grillo has raised the idea of joining up with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), which supports the common currency and European integration.

If M5S sign up with the ALDE grouping, it would become the third largest political force in the European Parliament, behind the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), Grillo wrote.

Many Five Star supporters reacted with outrage to the proposal, with one writing on Grillo's blog, “ALDE? Are we ultra-liberals or pro-Made in Italy?”

“If the base chooses to join ALDE there will be an endless haemorrhage of votes,” wrote another backer, Alessandro Gasparri.

Matteo Salvini, who leads Italy's anti-immigrant, anti-EU Northern League party, called the proposal an “incredible Europeanist about face by Grillo!”

For a little more power in parliament “the five stars are abandoning a eurosceptic group to join ALDE, the group most in favour of a Europe belonging to the euro, banks, lobbies and immigration,” he added.

M5S members can cast online ballots on Grillo's proposal until midday (1100 GMT) on Monday.

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Faced with Russia’s war in Ukraine, the potential return of Donald Trump as US president and competition from China, the new commission will need to steward the EU at a time of global uncertainty.

To confront the challenges, von der Leyen handed powerful economic portfolios to France, Spain and Italy — with a hard-right candidate from Rome taking a top role in a commission seen shifting broadly rightward.

“It’s about strengthening our tech sovereignty, our security and our democracy,” the commission chief said as she announced the team at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

France’s outgoing foreign minister Stephane Sejourne was handed an executive vice president role overseeing industrial strategy, after von der Leyen ousted Paris’s first nominee.

Spain’s Teresa Ribera, a socialist climate campaigner, was also made an executive vice president, tasked with overseeing competition and the bloc’s transition toward carbon neutrality.

As Russia’s war against Ukraine grinds on through a third year, security and defence assumed a new prominence.

Former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius landed a new defence role overseeing the EU’s push to rearm, making him one of several hawkish Russia critics in eastern Europe to receive a prominent position.

Those also include Estonia’s ex-premier Kaja Kallas, already chosen by EU leaders as the bloc’s foreign policy chief.

And Finland, another country neighbouring Russia, saw its pick Henna Virkkunen given a weighty umbrella role including security and tech.

As part of the bloc’s careful balancing act, the German head of the EU executive had to choose the lineup for her second term from nominees put forward by the other 26 member states.

That has meant treading a political tightrope between the demands of competing national leaders — and putting some noses out of joint.

The highest-profile casualty was France’s first-choice candidate Thierry Breton, who quit suddenly as internal market commissioner on Monday accusing von der Leyen of pushing Paris to ditch him.

Von der Leyen fell short in her efforts at gender balance, ending up with 40 percent women after pressuring member states for female nominees.

But women obtained the lion’s share of executive VP roles, with four of six posts.

Controversial Italian pick

The choice of who gets which job is an indication of where Brussels wants to steer the European Union — and the weight commanded by member states and political groupings after EU Parliament elections in June.

Cementing its status as parliament’s biggest group, Von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party commands 15 of 27 commission posts — to the chagrin of left-wing lawmakers like France’s Manon Aubry who warned of a lurch “far to the right” in terms of policies too.

Among the powerful vice presidents is Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, handed a cohesion brief in a nod to gains made by far-right parties in the June elections.

Giving a top role to a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party has raised hackles among centrist and leftist groups — while Meloni said it “confirms the newfound central role of our nation in the EU”.

After Green party losses at the June ballot, whether climate would remain high on the agenda and which commissioners would steer green policy was a subject of scrutiny.

As well as Ribera’s overarching role, the centre-right Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra will carry on in a position handling climate and the push to make the EU carbon neutral.

Among other eye-catching choices, Croatia’s Dubravka Suica obtained a new role overseeing the Mediterranean region, and the enlargement gig went to Slovenia’s Marta Kos — yet to be confirmed as her country’s candidate.

Other important figures going forward look set to be Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic, handling trade, and Poland’s Piotr Serafin, who will steer negotiations over the bloc’s next budget.

All would-be commissioners still need to win approval from the European Parliament, with hearings to start in coming weeks.

Lawmakers could flex their muscles by rejecting some candidates — or at least dragging them over the coals, as expected with Italy’s Fitto.

Chief among those suspected for the chopping block are Hungary’s Oliver Varhelyi, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s man in Brussels these past five years, who received a diminished portfolio covering health and animal welfare.

The stated target is to have a new commission in place by November 1st, but diplomats say that looks ambitious, with December 1 more likely.