A majority of members of Italy’s 5Star Movement on Thursday said the party should support a new government led by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.
In an online ballot — the 5Stars ask members to have a say on all major decisions using the Rousseau platform — 59 percent of the 74,537 people who voted said they wanted the party to support a Draghi government, as long as he creates a “super-ministry for ecological transition.”
“Today, our members once again demonstrated great maturity, loyalty to institutions and a sense of belonging to the country,” Luigi Di Maio, former 5Star political chief and ex-foreign affairs minister, wrote on Facebook.
“The 5Star Movement chooses the path of courage and participation, but above all chooses the European path,” he added.
Di Maio had already endorsed Draghi, as did the movement’s founder, Beppe Grillo.
But not everyone agrees.
Alessandro Di Battista — a prominent 5Stars member and former MP who has stuck to the party’s early Euroskeptic stance — decided to leave the party after Thursday’s vote.
“I have no choice but to step aside. From now on, I won’t speak in the name of the 5Star Movement, also because now the 5Star Movement doesn’t speak in my name,” Di Battista said in a Facebook video broadcast from his kitchen.
Di Battista criticized the movement for supporting a government that’s also backed by the 5Stars’ long-standing archenemy, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
5Star Senator Paola Taverna also opposed Draghi but accepted the outcome of the online vote. “Discussions end when a majority is expressed, and the outcomes of votes must be respected,” she tweeted.
The 5Star Movement is the biggest party in the Italian parliament. Earlier this week, the far-right League also indicated that it would support the new government, which is also backed by the center-left Democratic Party and center-right Forza Italia, led by Berlusconi.
