Italy: Luigi Di Maio and his five-star movement are disenchanted

Short while? At the end of the text c & # 39; is a summary.

Luigi Di Maio has just promised Italians a new economic miracle. The model: the sixties of gold. At that time, the construction of cars and railways was the boom. Now many fast data highways serve to provide growth and work. This is the vision of the vice premier of Rome and the leaders of the five-star movement.

Alone: ​​the times to look into a glorious future have not been optimally chosen. It seemed a bit out of reality. Almost at the same time, statisticians and business associations have announced their disastrous vision of the near future: no growth, but recession. For two quarters, industrial production has shrunk and for 2019 it does not seem better. Almost no industry is confident.

The data highways designed by Di Mario are a chimera in a country where many people have to take to the streets to receive mobile phones. Above all because there is no money for fast networks.

Voters of disillusioned stars

The five-star movement was nominated by Italians in last year's parliamentary elections, with almost 33% of the strongest party. The League on the right (former Lega Nord) reached 17% and actually became part of the coalition as a minor partner. But now, just a few months after the Star League government, everything is different.

The voters of the five-star movement are "disillusioned", says Enzo Risso, head of the SWG electoral institute. In the polls last week, the League was a good 32 percent – almost double the election results in March 2018. Di Maio's movement, however, is now six percent behind the League. The situation is similar for the values ​​of personal popularity of the best government politicians:

• As a strong man of the Roman government, Italians clearly see the leader of the Lega, Matteo Salvini. According to a recent survey commissioned by the RAI radio and television institute, 54% of those interviewed consider him a strong man in the government.
• Not followed by the stellar leader Di Maio, but with 24% the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. A surprising result – because: Conte has no part behind him and really nothing to say. It came only in office and dignity, because Di Maio and Salvini could not be agreed, who was authorized to become head of the government of their own.
• Di Maio, however, is the last one eliminated. The first-runner of the strongest party, only eleven percent of Italians consider the most important decision maker.

The main reason for the numbers of miserable polls: the protest movement was chosen by many – right and left – as a countermodel to the institution in Rome. Satisfying the sometimes contradictory expectations was easy in the election campaign: the five-star movement simply promised everything to everyone. But this does not work in political practice.

Some promises are unsustainable, others impracticable or financially profitable. Especially in the south, where many voters have crossed the stars, one project after another flopped:

• Before the elections, Ilva steelworks should be abandoned and transformed into a natural park. 50 percent of the voters of Taranto have rewarded this project with their votes. Now, the biggest employer in southern Italy could continue to produce.
• Likewise, when connecting Italy to a gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea: the categorical "not with us" now follows an "ok", because "energy costs are decreasing", as the CEO of the Lega Salvini states.
• Also at the trial drilling for gas and oil in the middle of the Adriatic was told by the five-star movement in the campaign "Stop it". Now the silent acquiescence is solved.
• Another failure on the high speed railway line (TAV) from Lyon in France to Turin in Italy. The "No-TAV" protests were an integral part of the five-star protests. However, billions of euros have already been built and another two billion could be threatened with sanctions, and the government partner Salvini says: "TAV is under construction".

All this contributes to the fact that in the five-star movement, the mood is miserable, the internal dispute of the party more difficult. Four deputies have already been pursued or left voluntarily, while others are apparently imminent. And now this week must also pass the absolute test of Di Maio's election test: the "basic income for all".

State aid: € 780 was € 140

More than ten million Italian poor had counted Di Maio before the election and had promised to solve their problems with a minimum income. 780 euros should receive every single month for rent, electricity, food and the like. For a family of three people it should be 1560 euros.

If you have less work or a pension, you get the difference from the state. This would cost 17 billion euros a year, Di Maio predicted. But it is expected that the unemployed will accept a job offered by the state – even if the workplace is 50 kilometers from the place of residence.

In the recent bill, which has been revised several times, the number of poor people has suddenly reduced to less than five million, the financial framework to 6.1 billion and the first to nine months. From a purely mathematical point of view, each recipient of benefits would receive only around € 140 a month. The economic situation of many poor families would not change that situation.

Di Maio seeks political happiness in the province

Especially since an unemployed beneficiary of this state aid will be authorized only twice to refuse a job offered, which in turn could be 100 kilometers away. After a one-year stellar grant, he would also have to take a job 250 kilometers away. The consequences: expensive move, change of children's schools or journey of 500 kilometers a day. In practice, however, the question will probably be simpler:

• First of all, this job placement does not exist so far, but must be set up.
• On the other hand, jobs in the corresponding number do not exist.

In desperate need Di Maio is now apparently on an idea of ​​Porto Torres, a city of 22,000 inhabitants in Sardinia. The so-called energy income program is being implemented here: the state is installing free solar panels on the roofs for poor families. These save heating costs. The energy they do not need enters the network of power companies and they pay the state for this. With this money, in turn, new panels can be placed on the roofs of other poor people.

In two years, this program has allowed to invest half a million euros in Porto Torres, with 50 families supplied with solar energy. Di Maio thinks: excellent idea. Now he wants to implement the program nationwide. If this happens effectively it is questionable. The costs are high Moreover, Matteo Salvini, his government partner and political rival, is likely to bury the idea anyway.

In summary: Luigi Di Maio was in 2018 with his five-star movement, the big winner of the Italian parliamentary elections. Since then, it's not going well: his junior partner Matteo Salvini is much more popular among voters, many have announced flop prestige projects in the election campaign – and the party is dissecting itself.