The 5 Star Movement still has some tests to pass, but it is one step closer to being accepted into the Left Group in the European Parliament

Brussels – The 5-Star Movement has been searching for a new political home in the EU Parliament for five years, and the goal has never been more within reach. The delegation of eight 5 Star Movement MEPs applied to join the Left Group in the European Parliament and, as the group’s co-chairs said at the constitutive meeting this morning (July 3), “no delegation has so far lodged any objections.” Not the two of the six MEPs elected from the ranks of the Green-Left Alliance (Ilaria Salis and Domenico Lucano) or the other major representations of the current 39-member group, such as the French (9), Greeks, Germans and Spaniards (all with 4).

“We have received the request from the 5-Star Movement to join the group. We will consider it carefully with them at the cabinet meeting tomorrow morning, and, from there, we will decide by tomorrow,” explained the French co-chair of the Left Group, Manon Aubry, speaking to the press at the end of the constituent meeting. The 24-hour postponement for the decision is due to the misgivings of some national delegations (such as those from Portugal, group sources point out) about the past of the 5 Star Movement: from the five-year alliance with the UK Independence Party (the former Brexit Party, now Reform UK) of Nigel Farage in the European Parliament between 2014 and 2018, to the government with the League of Matteo Salvini between 2018 and 2019. “We are discussing openly. We have questions for them, including about strategy in Italy and whether they feel part of the leftist family,” the French MEP reported.

Between today and tomorrow,” we will look at their European positions,” but we start from a basis of “collaboration in the last legislature” and some points of convergence on votes. “For example, they voted against the Migration and Asylum Pact, and they are against austerity policy.” For the Left, “the door is open, but the political conditions are clear and it is up to them to decide whether to respect them,” and, in any case, the final word will come “in close collaboration with Sinistra Italiana, because currently they are our Italian members and we have great respect for those who are already part of the group,” Aubry said, anticipating that “they too are open, especially if we take into account the modernization of the Left in Italy.” The new 5 Star Movement members will “have to individually sign an ethical declaration as part of their membership in the group” if the green light from the group arrives tomorrow, just like the other 39. “We are very ambitious on the defense of migrants’ rights, on the fight against fascism, on the defense of climate justice, and we will not compromise on any of these issues,” concluded co-chairwoman Aubry.

 The Left Group in the EU Parliament currently has 39 members and is the smallest among those being formed. Should the eight elected among the ranks of the 5 Star Movement – Gaetano Pedullà, Carolina Morace, Dario Tamburrano, Pasquale Tridico, Valentina Palmisano, Mario Furore, Danilo Della Valle, and Giuseppe Antoci – join, the number would rise to 47 members, still seven away from the second-to-last (Greens/ALE). The Italian component would become the largest (with 10 members), and the M5S delegation would be the largest, behind only La France Insoumise (9). “The indication of the Left Group in the EU Parliament is to vote against the confirmation of Ursula von der Leyen for a second term at the European Commission,” made clear co-chairman Martin Schirdewan, who also closed the door on the six elected members of the red-brown German Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – Reason and Justice (BSW) party, now left without solutions for the creation of a new far-left group: “What they do does not interest us.”