Komikern om Sadiq Khan: ”Kommer spränga sig själv”

The Five Star Movement (Italian: Movimento Cinque Stelle [moviˈmento ˈtʃiŋkwe ˈstelle], M5S) is a political party in Italy started by Beppe Grillo, a popular comedian and blogger, with Gianroberto Casaleggio, a web strategist, on 4 October 2009. After Casaleggio's death on 12 April 2016, the party is led by Grillo and a directorate compose of five leading MPs. The M5S is considered populist, anti-establishment, environmentalist, anti-globalist and Eurosceptic. Grillo himself provocatively once referred to his movement as "populist" during a meeting held in Rome with M5S senators. Its members stress that the M5S is not a party but a "movement" and it may not be included in the traditional left-right paradigm. The "five stars" are a reference to five key issues: public water, sustainable transport, sustainable development, right to Internet access, and environmentalism. The party also advocates direct democracy, the principle of "zero-cost politics", degrowth, and nonviolence. In foreign policy, the M5S have condemned military interventions of the West in the Greater Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya) as well as any notion of American intervention in Syria. At the 2013 general election the M5S won the second most popular votes for the Chamber of Deputies, but obtained just 109 deputies out of 630 due to an electoral system which favoured parties running in coalition. In the European Parliament the M5S is part of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group, along with the UK Independence Party.