Populism and Anti-Intellectualism: the Evolution of the Political Views of the Italian "Five Star Movement" (2005–2022)

Vakhrushev Ivan Iurevich Postgraduate student, Department of World History, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) 82 Vernadsky Ave., Moscow, 119571, Russia vakhrushev.ivan@yandex.ru

In recent decades, populism has remained one of the most researched topics in the social sciences. At the same time, the study of populism is as popular as it is controversial. There are at least three approaches to understanding this phenomenon ^[1]: ideational (populism is an ideology with a sparse center), discursive (populism is a Manichaean discourse), and mobilization (populism is a political strategy). It makes no sense to dwell on the problem of defining populism in the context of this study. However, it can be summarized that, in the end, all interpretive designs highlight one key feature of this phenomenon — anti-elitism, the exaltation of the immaculate people and the contempt of the vicious elite.

Populism has other features, such as anti-intellectualism. In his Pulitzer work, R. Hofstadter wrote that intellectuals can be perceived by the general public as pretentious, vain, effeminate, snobbish, immoral, dangerous, subversive ^{[2, p. 18]}. As the researcher wrote: "The common sense of an ordinary person can be quite an adequate substitute for formal knowledge and expertise, and perhaps far surpasses them" ^{[2, pp. 18-19]}. In this sense, this cultural paradigm is close to populism - subsequent researchers have repeatedly noted the tendency of anti-elitist politicians to appeal to common sense, folk wisdom rather than hard science ^[3].

E. Merkley, in his analysis of populism and anti-intellectualism, defines the latter as suspicion and distrust of intellectuals and experts of any kind, stemming from contempt for scientific and intellectual pursuits ^[4]. Populist distrust of expert knowledge is rooted in the fear that it can be used against ordinary citizens, and intellectuals themselves can be perceived as part of a vicious ruling elite. Anti-intellectualism, therefore, can be characterized as narrowly focused anti-elitism. In this context, following Merkley's definition, the analysis of the relationship between populism and anti-intellectualism is carried out in this article.

Italy is one of the most interesting countries to study populism. In the 1940s and 1950s, Guglielmo Gianninni anticipated modernity with qualukvism ("philistinism"), extreme political indifferentism mixed with anti-elitism. And half a century later, Silvio Berlusconi and Umberto Bossi in the 1990s stood at the forefront of modern populism, the "pathological normality" of liberal democracies ^[5]. The Italian Five Star Movement (D5Z), founded in 2009 by comedian Beppe Grillo and IT entrepreneur Gianroberto Casaleggio, in the context of the connection between populism and anti-intellectual sentiments, is of particular interest due to the illustrative effect of institutionalization on the discourse and political practice of populism in general and manifestations of anti-intellectualism in particular.

The purpose of this article is to fill in the existing gaps and give a more accurate look at the anti—intellectualism of the "Five Star Movement". The aim of the study is to study three stages of the evolution of D5Z in the context of anti-intellectualism: initial (2005-2013); parliamentary (2013-2018); governmental (2018-2022). To achieve the goals and objectives of the study, text analysis and discourse analysis based on party blogs, media materials and texts of draft laws were used. The search for manifestations of anti-intellectualism was carried out by navigating through the once official websites of the D5Z (beppgrillo.it , ilblogdellestelle.it ), the archive of bills of the Italian Parliament, the study of media publications in the period from 2005 (the launch of the Beppe Grillo blog) to 2022 (the end of the government period of the "Five Stars").

The anti-intellectualism of D5Z in the scientific literature has not yet received a substantive study, despite the fact that this plot prominently characterizes the political path of the "Five Stars". There are no publications in the Russian literature that somehow relate to this topic: neither a search for specialized resources (Google Scholar, elibrary, academia.edu and others), did not give any results on the websites of scientific journals.

At least this problem has been discussed in foreign literature. F. Roziti, for example, noted that the Movement accepts and supports research analyzing environmental problems (the green agenda is an important part of the party's ideology), but in general, the communicative practice of the Movement, according to the researcher, postulates the denial of the value of intellectual research ^[6]. One can continue to think that the environmentalist agenda, which is mainstream for the scientific community, is used to a large extent to promote an anti-elitist narrative: The current political class does not adequately address the issues of sustainable green development, but the "Movement" does.

A. Bulla, in the context of a general study on vaccine skepticism in Italian politics, mentions various controversial statements by Beppe Grillo like "AIDS is the biggest hoax of this century", a number of anti—vaxxer comments published on Grillo's blog ^{[7, p. 99]}. T. Sorell and J. Butler, in his article on populism and resistance to anti-covid vaccination, separately notes D5Z as the most illustrative example of the correlation between support for populist parties and attitudes towards childhood vaccination as something optional ^[8]. The closest D5Z to a substantive analysis of anti-intellectualism was conducted by N. Rietdijk ^[9]. The author has researched the history of the anti-vaccination movement in Italy in sufficient detail, focusing also on the "Five Star Movement". However, it is worth noting that the researcher's article bypassed some points that would allow us to give a slightly more nuanced view of the development of the anti-scientific discourse of the "Five Stars".  Summing up the interim results, it is worth noting that it was the anti-corruption topic that attracted the most attention from both scientists and journalists in the context of the anti-intellectualism of the "Movement". 

The formation stage of the party (2005-2013)

An important component of the D5Z ideology was an appeal to the benefits of direct and electronic democracy, a belief in the limitless possibilities of digital technologies that will overcome the dictates of traditional media and state censorship. In the vision of the founders of the party, the World Wide Web will radically change political practice, allowing Internet users to decide their own fate instead of giving the right to make decisions to professional politicians ^{[10, p. 112]}. In the techno-utopianism of the initial stage of the party's development, based on skepticism towards traditional forms of politics, anti-intellectualism can be traced to a certain extent. It is most clearly manifested in the video Gaia - The future of politics, released in 2008 by J. Casaleggio, co-founder of D5Z and the party's technology guru.

Anticipating the digital revolution in 2054, liberating humanity, the video also told that at the beginning of the XXI century, the fate of the world is determined by Masonic, religious, financial groups and 130 members of the Bilderberg Club. In 2013, when D5Z had already reached the national level, Casaleggio said that the video was a joke and should not be taken seriously ^[11].

However, given the sincere techno-utopian nature of the video and other similar statements from other "five-starers", it is not easy to believe Casalejo. For example, the Masonic conspiracy theme was also manifested in the discourse of the second co-founder of D5Z, Beppe Grillo: "This Italy was never born, it has neither body nor soul. This is a zombie dominated by the mafia, Freemasonry and political crime."^[12] In other blogs, Grillo also talked about the Bilderberg Club ^{[13, 14]}: it has existed since 1952, represents the world's most elite, meets annually in a CIA-guarded hotel, supports the law of silence (like omerta in the Italian mafia), secretly influences the fate of the entire planet. Grillo accused Mario Monti, the Italian technocrat prime minister (2011-2013), in particular, of belonging to the club.

In another text, Grillo wrote that the "political generation" colluded with the "mafia, Freemasonry, clergy and local intriguers" against the "network generation" formed under the influence of the Internet ^[15]. Some of these "online" citizens were encouraged by the leadership, receiving individual publications on Grillo's blog. Some of them expressed similar conspiracy theories to the leaders of the Five Stars. One user wrote a text saying that the Democratic Party sent its vice chairman to a Bilderberg Club meeting to receive orders from the international Freemasonry ^[16]. Another commentator on the occasion of the formation of a technocratic government, Mario Monti, wrote that the latter's membership in the Bilderberg Club does not inspire confidence that Monti can save Italy during the eurozone crisis ^[17].

This suspicion of Freemasons and other secret organizations of the powerful shows, first of all, the influence of the activities of the criminal organization "Propaganda 2". Initially, it really was a Masonic lodge that had existed since the 19th century. However, in 1976, it was deprived of the official status of a regular Masonic organization after a number of public scandals and court proceedings, having existed until 1981 as a "wild lodge". Many prominent politicians, civil servants and businessmen turned out to be among the members of the "Propaganda", which created the lodge's disputed reputation as a "shadow government" ^[18]. How justified this reputation is is not the problem of this study. However, the bottom line is that Grillo and Casaleggio, exploiting the fears of forty years ago, used them against their political opponents — despicable party democrats. 

As mentioned above, the anti-intellectualism of the "Movement" attracted the most attention in the context of vaccination. Here, the history of the issue goes back to the days when there was no one D5Z in sight.

In 1998, Grillo, then still a comedian, joked about the advantages of living in the Middle Ages, where God knew everything: "At least it was God who made you sick, and not some damn multinational corporation."^[19] Here Grillo was scaring not so much with vaccines, but with what is called Big Pharma in the conspiracy environment — a colluded community of doctors and pharmacists who intimidate and manipulate society in pursuit of their evil goals.

Already as a politician, Grillo continued to make questionable statements about vaccinations. In 2007, he listed vaccines among the causes of the increase in autism among children ^[20]. In his statement, the comedian-politician referred to some abstract scientists, without providing links to research. In 2009, in connection with the outbreak of swine flu, Grillo wondered what kills more - the swine flu itself or the vaccine against it ^[21].

As in the case of the Masons and the Bilderberg Club, Grillo's blog separately published texts from ordinary users with anti-action statements. Among them is the blog "The father of an autistic child", which stated the connection between autism and vaccines ^[22]. Another user material, published with the headline "You can die from a vaccine," told about a certain father of a family who lost two children due to vaccinations and the Italian health care system, which seeks not to help the sick, but pursues selfish interests ^[23]. Whether real people with real stories wrote these blogs is unclear, but they spoke in the spirit of the leaders of the "Five Stars".

Summing up the interim results, it can be stated that at the first stage of the existence of the D5Z, just the anti—intellectualism was manifested, the definition of which is given at the beginning of the article - it is protest anti-intellectualism, anti-elitist. In this context, D5Z had two enemies in the initial period of its existence — the sinister Big Pharma with its vaccinations and a vicious government controlled from the shadows.

Parliamentary stage (2013-2018)

In 2013, as a result of the parliamentary elections, the Five Star Movement reached the national level for the first time, receiving a quarter of the votes and becoming one of the leading parties in Italy. The "Movement" became the third pole of the bipolar political system and flatly refused to enter into a coalition with the "party democrats", holding the legislature in fierce opposition to unstable and shaky mainstream governments.

Let's start this section by examining the conspiracy views on the world order that were still openly expressed, especially in the first half of the legislature. For example, deputies Sibilia and Bernini went to London, to The Groove hotel, where the Bilderberg Club meeting was taking place, to write a damning article for the party's blog ^[24]. All the same Freemasons, along with banks, were accused of attacking Article 18 of the Labor Code and trying to turn workers into slaves ^[25]. The reason for this was the liberalization of labor legislation by the government of Matteo Renzi, which simplified the dismissal of employees. Often, however, Freemasons were mentioned simply separated by commas as part of an anti-democratic "System" or "Caste" along with lobbies, political parties, the media, banks, and the mafia ^[26-29].

Getting the opportunity to propose laws at the national level led to the expression of anti-intellectualism of the D5Z at the legislative level. In July 2013, the D5Z senators proposed a bill ^[30] requiring recognition of homeopathic medicine and "pluralism in science and scientific research." The bill proposed to establish a permanent commission on homeopathy under the Ministry of Health, the creation by the Ministry of Education of postgraduate courses to qualify a specialist in homeopathic medicine, the possibility of accreditation of organizations whose purpose is to spread homeopathic medicine, etc. Given the protest of D5Z and earlier statements regarding Big Pharma, it is not surprising that there was support for alternative methods in the "Five Stars" discourse treatments that are not recognized by the medical community.

The anti-vaccination theme was also expressed in legislative activity: in 2014, 12 deputies of the D5Z introduced a bill on the possibility of refusing vaccination for civil servants ^[31]. The text of the document stated that some recent studies (there were no references to them) revealed a link between vaccines and various diseases, including leukemia, transmissible genetic mutations, tumor diseases and autism. In February 2014, a bill was submitted to the legislative Assembly of the Lombardy region, which proposed to weaken the mandatory childhood vaccination. The text of the document stated, in particular, that some "numerous studies" (again without references to primary sources) prove the relationship between some serious pathologies and the introduction of vaccines at neonatal age ^[32].

The anti-corruption theme was also fueled by the realities of Italian politics. In 2014, the well-known virologist and MP Illaria Kapua came under investigation on suspicion of trafficking in the virus and spreading the epidemic — the "Movement" immediately responded to this, among other things, with accusations of trafficking in vaccines that should fight artificially created viruses ^[33]. When Kapua was acquitted by the court in 2016, however, there were no comments from D5Z.

Despite all of the above, the evolution of the D5Z is also visible at the parliamentary stage. Having become part of the political regime, the "Movement", striving to obtain a government mandate, had to show itself as a responsible force. This meant that the anti-intellectualism that accompanied the initial phase of the development of the "Movement" could prevent the D5Z from presenting itself as a mature party worthy of governing the country.

The case of Gian Paolo Vanoli, a former member of the D5Z cell in the Lombard city of Segrate, is indicative here. In March 2013, a month after the successful parliamentary elections for the D5Z, Vice released an interview with Gian Paolo Vanoli, a self-proclaimed scientist, investigative journalist, supporter and adviser to the "Five Stars" on environmental and health issues ^[34]. Vanoli, in a conversation with a Vice journalist, issued a number of "explosive" statements: viruses do not exist — they were invented by Big Pharma, vaccines cannot be given to children, childhood vaccinations can cause homosexuality, urine therapy is an effective method of treatment, etc. The next day after publication, representatives of D5Z tried to disown Vanoli's belonging to the "Five Stars". This is despite the fact that the self-proclaimed scientist participated in the events of the "Movement", including as a speaker, and his publications were distributed in the official accounts of the local D5Z cell in social networks ^[35]. The "movement" tried to publicly show that it had nothing to do with Vanoli's views, although, as we have already seen, similar statements were leaked even at the level of national lawmaking. In general, the D5Z, having entered Parliament, inevitably went towards institutionalization, and therefore to the rejection of some marginal parts of its discourse.

This process was gradual. In 2015, the D5Z blog published a text ^[36] recognizing the role of vaccines "in eradicating terrible diseases such as polio, diphtheria or hepatitis." At the same time, it cautiously stated that vaccines can cause side effects, "which in very rare cases can even be serious, such as induction of the same disease from which immunity is required" ^[36]. In general, the text demanded "vaccinate less, but better." The main problem of vaccination, according to the authors of the article, was the issue of trust (to pharmaceutical companies, doctors, politicians, the scientific community) — in principle, the issue of (not) trust in officials and institutions is a characteristic issue for populism. It's just that in this case, it manifested itself in the issue of healthcare.

A significant impetus towards the scientific mainstream was the publication in 2017 of the editorial column of The New York Times ^[37]. In it, the editorial board of the American media condemned some politicians, including Italian ones, for spreading false information about vaccinations. In particular, the newspaper, referring to data from the Italian Ministry of Health, wrote about an increase in the number of measles cases and a simultaneous decrease in the number of vaccinated. The New York Times attributed credit for this to D5Z and Beppe Grillo, among others.

Grillo and Five Stars responded with a number of official statements. The co-founder of the party posted a blog "Mandatory vaccine against newspaper nonsense" on the day of the column's publication ^[38]. In it, he accused journalists of fake news and stated that D5Z had never opposed vaccines and had not stated the connection between vaccinations and autism. As we have already seen, at least the latter was not true. A few weeks later, an official post was published on behalf of the party ^[39], calling for maximum, but voluntary vaccination. The text even stated that anti-piracy is "unscientific", and, therefore, D5Z does not accept it. In addition, the text emphasized that D5Z "looks forward to a serious and informed discussion with all political forces to develop a better immunization strategy." The latter is especially noteworthy in the context of the fact that the D5Z stood out for its irreconcilable position and refusal to cooperate with the "party democrats", the old parties, as we discussed at the beginning of this section. 

Government phase (2018-2022)

The next parliamentary elections were held in March 2018. According to their results, the D5Z received the most support (about 40% of the votes) and claimed a leading role in the formation of the government. As a result, the "Five Stars" joined three different cabinet ministers during the XVIII Parliamentary Legislature (2018-2022). Five Stars has abandoned its ban on forming coalitions with "party democrats", which in itself shows the path taken by D5Z to "normality".

Despite the fact that, since the parliamentary period, the D5Z has tried to cleanse itself of the stigma of anti-intellectualism, the latter has periodically made itself felt.

Let's start this section again with conspiracy rhetoric, which, in fact, has practically disappeared from the party's discourse. During the entire government period, only two articles were published in all D5Z blogs, in which Freemasons were mentioned at least in some specific way. The first one was published by the head of the government's anti-mafia commission, Nicolla Morra, in which he mentioned the links between organized crime and secret communities ^[40]. The second one was published shortly before the government crisis in the summer of 2019, as a result of which the government of the D5Z and the League collapsed. The reason for the publication was an interview with the chairman of the Italian Lodge of Freemasons to the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. D5Z took the opportunity not only to warn the public about the machinations of secret societies, but also to once again talk about the benefits of the Network and direct democracy ^[41]. In general, the Masonic theme was no longer raised in the official discourse — for the party of the government majority and the government, such rhetoric would look inappropriate.

Let's move on to health issues. In October 2019, the senator of the Movement announced a conference on the prospects of homeopathic medicine in the public health system, which was to be held in the Senate, and the Deputy Prime Minister for health from the Movement was declared a participant in the discussion ^[42]. After the announcement of the event and the violent reaction that followed, the Movement tried to disown direct participation in the event, but the conference nevertheless took place. However, there was no mention from the materials of the event that it was organized by the "Movement", the Deputy Prime Minister of the D5Z refused to participate, and the topic of the meeting began to sound more broadly - the prospects of homeopathic medicine in general.

The alignment of the D5Z position is most evident in the issue of vaccinations and the political fate of some prominent party members who previously openly expressed anti-vaccination views. In 2018, members of the Lazio Legislative Assembly from the Five Stars faction proposed a bill that, in addition to abolishing mandatory vaccinations, would, among other things, oblige vaccinated children to be quarantined before they return to school ^[43]. One of the authors of the bill, Davide Barillari, was expelled from the party in 2020 for creating a website publishing a "counterinformation" on healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic ^[44].

In January 2018, D5Z member and parliamentary candidate Sarah Kunial called mass vaccination a "free genocide", and a year later, as a parliamentarian, she organized a conference in the Chamber of Deputies on the dangers of vaccinations - however, in the same 2019, Kunial was expelled from the party for her anti—scientific views ^[45].

Another landmark moment in relation to the anti-intellectualism of the D5Z can be called the signing in 2019 by Beppe Grillo of the "scientific pact", aimed, according to the signatories, against the spread of pseudoscientific knowledge, pseudomedical treatment methods, support for anti-vaxxerism, AIDS denial ^[46]. The initiator of the "pact" was the virologist Roberto Burioni, who had previously publicly criticized the "Five Stars" for anti-scientific views. The document was also signed by Matteo Renzi, the former prime minister, who, along with Silvio Berlusconi, can be called the most hated Italian politicians for the "Five Stars". 

The change in the position of the "Movement" on issues of scientific and expert knowledge became especially noticeable during the COVID-19 pandemic. As you know, the coronavirus has dealt a heavy blow to Italy. The government of Giuseppe Conte (a man who was not originally a member of the Five Stars, but later became chairman of the party) The D5Z and the Democratic Party have chosen a tough approach, dictated by the expert community, to combat the pandemic both in terms of lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations.

The "movement" supported this "mainstream" approach in the fight against the pandemic despite the drop in ratings ^[47]: MEP D. Rondinelli called the vaccination campaign the only tool in case of a prolonged pandemic, Deputy Prime Minister for Health P. Sileri advocated the mandatory coronavirus vaccinations. The head of the Ministry of Justice, A. Bonafede, who had previously talked about the connection between vaccinations and autism, now supported the mass vaccination campaign against COVID ^[48]. Those who disagreed with the party line were excluded from the party, as we have already seen in the example of D, Barillari, or left themselves.

Thus, the government period, although it did not completely deprive the Five Star Movement of anti-intellectualism, nevertheless leveled its discourse and political practice towards the mainstream. 

Conclusion        

The Five Star Movement has become one of the most successful populist projects: as a result of the first national elections in 2013, the D5Z became one of the most popular parties in the country, and as a result of the next elections in 2018, it became the largest party in parliament and a key participant in government coalitions.

One of the important features of the party was undoubtedly anti-intellectualism, which is inherent in populism in principle. However, this anti-intellectualism was indeed peculiar. On the one hand, the leaders and members of the D5Z supported the green agenda, which is mainstream for modern science. But on the other hand, on a number of issues (primarily health issues), statements have been made over and over again that are very controversial from the point of view of the scientific community: from the existence of a vicious alliance between the government and Big Pharma to the fact that vaccines cause autism.

The "movement", having entered the national authorities, began the path to inevitable institutionalization. The latter meant the alignment of discourse towards the mainstream, and in the case of anti-intellectualism, the emasculation of marginal discourse. Thus, the D5Z, having become part of the political elite, has approached the mainstream in many ways, including on the issue of trust in scientific knowledge.