We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at ﬁve stars

2 8

July-August 2018

Fuller: Eleonora, how did you come to be

active in politics and why did you join the 5

Star Movement?

Evi: I joined in 2010. At the time we were

polling at two per cent and had no elected

representatives. I joined to support cam-

paigns for public water, against nuclear

energy, but also for cleaning out the parlia-

ment [of corruption]. At ﬁrst my activities

consisted of collecting signatures for those

campaigns. It was after seeing a show by

Beppo Grillo [a comedian and one of the

movement’s founders] that I decided to stop

stitting on my sofa and watching politics,

but to do it myself, and within eight years I

am here in the European Parliament with a

platform that we created.

Fuller: Was it dif ﬁcult as someone with no

previous political experience to become an

MEP?

Evi: There is a lot to study, a lot of docu-

ments, directives and regulations! But we

are not representatives in terms of old-st yle

political representatives. We strongly

believe in direct democracy and these deci-

sions are taken through online platforms

involving our members. It is more difﬁcult

to have a connection when you are physi-

cally removed from the local level, as we are

here at the EU. Nonetheless, online consul-

tations in a number of areas and debate

inside the delegation gives us a clear direc-

tion for the political positions we take.

Fuller: Can you explain how these consul-

tations with party members work?

Evi: On the national level all members can

propose legislation or amendments to exist-

ing legislation. They vote every so often on

which proposals should go forward to the

Parliament and start the legislative process.

On other issues, we launch consultations on

legislation that is already in the pipeline at

the national level where we need to consult

our members to determine a clear policy

position. That happens quite of ten. It cannot

take place everyday, but we do it for those

areas where we need to have a strong politi-

cal position backed by our members.

Fuller: On a national level the Five Star

Movement has plans to introduce a minimum

basic income in Italy. What is the 5SM posi-

tion on equality: do you support equality of

opportunity or equality of outcome?

Evi: We are the only European country that

does not have comprehensive social protec-

tion schemes and we have been working to

ﬁll this gap. It is important to have access

to a minimum income in order to live in dig-

nity. But our proposal also has an economic

purpose. People receiving the minimum

basic income must also commit to engaging

in some form of service, for example, help-

ing out in their local city. It is not, as it is

often presented in the media, giving money

to people to stay at home and do nothing,

but an economic plan to help people start

again. Our numbers of unemployed and

people living in extreme poverty are dra-

matically increasing, so it is a huge priority

to change this situation.

Fuller: Do I understand correctly, that

there is currently no unemployment or wel-

We are all in the gutter

but some of us are

looking at ﬁve stars

Roslyn Fuller interviews Eleonora Evi, MEP for

Italy’s Five Star Movement [5SM]

‘We are the only European country that does not have

comprehensive social protection schemes and we have been

working to ﬁll this gap. It is important to have access to a minimum

income'

POLITICS

July-August 2018

2 9

fare aid in Italy?

Evi: We have temporary unemployment

assistance only under certain conditions.

You can potentially end up without state

help of any kind. We do not have other kinds

of assistance like paying bills for elecricity,

etc.

Fuller: One of your particular interests is

the environment. How have you formulated

your environmental policy? Do you feel

people are willing to forego some economic

advantages in the interest of the environ-

ment or is that a false choice?

Evi: It is a false choice, because economic

opportunity and job potential is in line with

environmental protection. Every star of the

Five Star Movement stands for a major

theme, one is public water, one is sustain-

able transport, one is the environment as

such. For us the environmental aspect char-

acterises all our policies – the environment

and our health – those are deeply inter-

linked. For example, we are working on new

limits for CO2 emissions for cars and vans.

Every year more than 400,000 people die

prematurely because of air pollution in

Europe. This is part of delivering on the cli-

mate targets we all signed in Paris a few

years ago, but are too often neglected.

Fuller: M5S is of ten said to be a Euroscep-

tic party and in the EU Parliament you sit in

a block with UKIP. Would you ever consider

leaving the EU?

Evi: We have never considered leaving the

EU. We believe that the EU ha s to be changed

from the inside. The monetary union as it is

today puts a lot of constraints on some

countries while others are exploiting the sit-

uation. Germany, for example, is constantly

breaking the economic rules for its surplus

in imports/exports, but there is no political

will to solve this problem. We need a more

fair approach in terms of respecting the eco-

nomic rules and European law.

Fuller: When you refer to some countries

‘exploiting the situation’ are you referring to

tax havens?

Evi: The European Union and Commission

are always shouting and ﬁghting all over the

world against tax havens, while we have

them within Europe. In the long run this will

not beneﬁt the creation of this common

house that we should create.

Fuller: M5S has had a quite hostile recep-

tion in the English-speaking press…

Evi: Yes, we have been depicted as racists

and fascists and as a movement that wants

to destroy Europe. We had a great result in

the recent national elections, but did not

win [despite M5S being the single par ty with

the largest number of votes, the centre-right

coalition of parties received more votes and

seats]. We thought our responsibilit y was to

engage in a new government. The govern-

ment that has been created with the Lega [a

right-wing party] has a very clear mandate

that we put black on white in a contract

where we deﬁned the boundaries where we

wanted to act. We are two political forces

that have their own identities and we are

going to keep our own identities – I want to

underline that. But we are going to work

within the framework of that contract to

deliver concrete measures to improve the

quality of life for citizens living in Italy

today.

Fuller: Still some people would say that

going into coalition with the Lega is encour-

aging racism.

Evi: At the end of the day Italians came

out with a large vote for us and a large vote

for the Lega. Of course, people voted for

other parties as well, but during the nego-

tiations for government, some of those

parties decided to disappear. We many

times tried to form a government with the

[centre-left] Democratic Party but they

wouldn’t. Since we are elected by our citi-

zens, our main priority has to be on ﬁxing

the problems our voters are facing – that is

our responsibility – and we found a partner

to reach our objectives with.

Fuller: Is it true that the Five Star Move-

ment only allows its candidates to serve for

two terms?

Evi: Yes. This is a rule that I am very

attached to. It counts at all levels, local,

national, European – I can only represent

citizens twice. So I have the aim of improv-

ing the life of citizens in that time in order

to get back to my previous work, my previ-

ous life, and hopefully ﬁnd it better than

when I left it. So it is a rule that keeps our

feet on the ground.

Fuller: Will you not miss being involved in

politics as you are now?

Evi: I don’t think so, because you can do

politics in millions of ways. Defending our

environment, for example. But the spirit

should be one of service instead of as a

career.

Fuller:

Finally, why are you coming to

DemCon?

Evi: Because I strongly believe that we

need to speak more about the future of

democracy, about those new scenarios that

we are facing and those challenges that the

European Union will face. So it is a great

opportunity to exchange views with many

other people.

Eleonora Evi MEP will be speaking at

DemCon, a convention on the Future of

Democracy, in Balbriggan, July 18-20.

'We many times tried to form a government with the [centre-

left] Democratic Party but they wouldn’t do it'