My interview on intervistato.com

from intervistato.com
here is the 1st part of my interview (scroll down to watch the other parts and read the article): 




2nd part:


3rd part:


4th part:


Federica Salsi, former Movimento 5 Stelle activist, has given us an interview a few days after the elections that saw a great success of the Movement itself.

First of all we asked Federica for her opinion regarding the preparation of the activists: in her opinion there is no lack of technical competences inside the Movement, but of knowledge relative to the functioning of the administration. It is clear that, when you start such a path, it's not thinkable to weigh on the contributors shoulders for the entire time you need to prepare. The interview with Bartolomeo Pepe, which has arisen a lot of discussion these days, has amazed her: she believes that there are quite a few well prepared people inside the Movement. Not many, but there are a few.

In Federica's opinion the perplexities she had aknowledged last year after her being expelled from the Movement have found a confirmation in what we see happening now, and hers is just an anticipation of the sensations that now find confirmation in facts.
First of all, in her opionion it is necessary to intervene on how people enter the world of work, not on how people exit it. Secondly the types of available contracts are way too many and misused, also and mostly because they aren't controlled in any way.

What we should ask ourselves is why Beppe Grillo takes the liberty of saying - for example - that he would see Di Pietro well as President, without even consulting with the base. Another interesting fact is that Grillo has continued to do the same thing after the elections as well, when he should at least have consulted with those who were elected.

We asked Federica whether the results of these elections have amazed her: the answer was absolutely not. They knew the results would have been around 28-30%, and what happened is nothing else than a confirmation of what was being said before the vote. No wonder, if we consider the discontent that existed in the Country: there are many people who voted M5S not because they believe that the Movement will save the country, but just because they didn't want to vote the same old faces.

This is proven by the fact that astensionism has increased: even with a great result, the Movement didn't manage to move those who abstained, who are the real public of the M5S, but they have moved votes from left and right, then attracted towards the Movement.

There are many questions in this moment and a great attention towards the activists, for example with the Grillo - Hitler, emerged during the last few days. In Federica's opinion there's a great opening of the Movement to anyone who wants to get informed and get to know the activities on the territory, but there's a great difference between local and national dynamics. If it's true that at a local leve the organization has always happened in an autonomous way, the same cannot be said about the national context, where Grillo and Casaleggio have decided everything autonomously by themselves.

Starting with the rules, from the modalities for candidacies, the content of the program, everything done without a confrontation with the activists, in order to communicate these content with modalities that recall those of the fascist era. The difference is made by the people who are part of the Movement, especially those who joined in 2007, 2008 and 2009, when Grillo used a way that was ironic and fierce, but still softer than he is today.

Now it is much more violent, and they stimulate the gut - as was done during the fascism and nazi era - and there's a lack of a solution. So from a communication point of view, the analogies are there, but we will have to see how the government behaves before we can express a definitive opinion.

We asked whether this change in the modalities of communication, and the fact that consequently many exponents of Forza Nuova and Casa Pound were attracted to the Movement, might alter the originary nucleus of the Movement itself: in Federica's opinion this risk exists and is real. She believes there has been a shift towards a right wing ideology during the last 12 months. Until 2011 Grillo has aggregated a public that was closer to the left wing, while from 2012 onwards, starting with the collase of the right and the Lega scandal, he also started saying things that attracted that kind of vote.

This is confirmed especially at a local level, where there can be great discrepancies regarding certain topics: in Bologna there has always been a level of civilized confrontation and understanding regarding immigration, while in other contexts, especially in the north, there's a tendency towards the Northern League kind of approach.

The Movement was born around a few very clear topics: environment, transparency, cost reduction. There were no ideologies, but very concrete problems, which could be shared by people both at the extreme right and the extreme left, which led to the creation of a container in which extremely different ideologies need to cohexist.