Italy’s 5-Stars eye national office, hold technology summit
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ROME — Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement is broadening its reach as it eyes national office, inviting some very establishment figures to a daylong summit Saturday on technology, science, jobs and the future.
The summit, which was intentionally low on political diatribe, marked a new phase for the grassroots protest movement that has upended the Italian political scene and now leads the polls as Italy prepares for a general election later this year or next.
And it provided strong evidence that the 5-Stars are attracting more than just the working-class backers typical of Europe’s anti-establishment parties. The head of Google Italy, university professors and prominent journalists took part, though there were notable absences, including among 5-Star lawmakers and Italy’s leading astronaut, who bailed at the last minute.
5-Star founder Beppe Grillo sat in the front row of the converted Olivetti typewriter factory in Ivrea, near Turin in northern Italy, watching as a next generation of 5-Star sympathizers outlined how Italy might emerge from years of economic stagnation and rising unemployment.
