Analysis
100,000 pacifists demonstrated in Rome, called by Conte and the Five Stars
The success of the M5S demonstration is the fruit of the lack of an independent and plural space proper to the Italian antiwar movement.
“We are 100,000,” said Giuseppe Conte while greeting the crowd. Saturday’s demonstration against rearmament and for social spending called by the Five Star Movement (M5S) was a success.
And not just due to the numbers: the initiative to bring the people devoted to peace to Rome, regardless of and not limited to M5S membership, succeeded. Along the packed march from Piazza Vittorio to the Forums, one could recognize many of the different strands that make up the pacifist world. And one could see the faces of many of those who have been mobilizing against the warmongering drift in recent years. The unity that had fallen apart at the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine and struggled to make a difference in the face of the endless massacre that followed October 7 in Palestine now seemed to be materializing once more under the banners of a revived Five Star Movement.
The M5S, obviously (as we know, in politics, necessity is transformed into virtue), appeared welcoming and without an attitude of rejection towards a large part of the people of the diffuse left, who had long been looking for a way to meet, demonstrate and make themselves visible.
From this perspective, the high attendance at the Five Star Movement’s demonstration is the result of other absences. It comes from the partial yet tangible vacuity of the Democratic Party, which turned the no to rearmament into a virulent internal debate and which only after a last-minute rethink agreed to respond to Conte's invitation by sending a delegation led by Senate group leader Francesco Boccia to the parade. And it is the fruit of the lack of an independent and plural space proper to the Italian antiwar movement.
On March 29, the CGIL union tried to get everyone at the table to discuss Europe, rearmament, the social model and ecological transition instead of military reconversion, but for too long there has been no one willing to fully put themselves out there and give tangible proof of the existence of a public sphere of criticism against the warmongering drift.
The bad news is that this opportunity has been seized by a single political force, which on Saturday was able to drape its own brand around the diverse makeup of the anti-war people. The good news, we would say, is that this cohort that was visible in the streets of Rome is rather impossible to reduce to a single form of representation: from now on, one should not trust anyone who will put themselves forward as spokesmen for a people who are made up of many strands and who want to have their say in person and not be talked down to in the permanent debate.
Conte seemed to be aware of this as he brought forth such ecumenical words from the stage at the Forums as would have been unthinkable for the M5S of yesteryear. “Thank you to those who are at the protest with ideas different from ours. We respect you,” said the Five Star leader.
The M5S seems aware of its choice to place itself on the progressive front. Before the national level, this positioning had an effect on the discussions that took place both on the stage and backstage at the Roman event, among the speakers and in the midst of the people: Conte’s Five Stars, in their first major public outing after the start of the post-Grillo era, seem to have internalized their positioning on the left and their common home in The Left group in the European Union. One could see Nicola Fratoianni with the Green Angelo Bonelli, the Communist Maurizio Acerbo and Marc Botenga of the Belgian Labor Party. It will still take a good dose of courage to break the last taboo and go as far as to side with the citizenship referendum in June, but the anti-rearmament demonstration appeared unquestionably – with very few slips that are not even worth highlighting – as one that invited the left into the conversation.
Beyond the slogans and words on April 5, another question arises, one regarding a choice tied to political grammar, not to be taken as a judgment of merit. That is: is there a space for populism around the rejection of war? In other words: can the issue of arms become a single-issue watershed, a red line around which to build a people, as we saw at the time of the instant successes of Grillo’s early followers around the narrative frame of the (political) “caste”?
When Conte is greeting “a people who want to be heard, who do not want to remain invisible,” he seems to evoke such a scenario. The choreographed presence on the streets of Rome of the Neapolitan influencer Rita De Crescenzo, complete with bodyguards and announcements of a possible run for office, allude to a caricature-like breakout of a new form of exaltation of the “common people.”
However, the protests are not quite clean of unwanted influences and the context still matters: the heritage and experience of the peace movements seems better equipped than the social composition that was the foundation on which Beppe Grillo and Gianroberto Casaleggio built their political foray. Perhaps the former also has the tools to refute the somewhat simplistic (to say the least) notions of Marco Travaglio, who argued that Putin's invasion was nothing more than the result of “provocations by the U.S. and NATO, which have been seeking war for ten years.” Or that Trump “horrifies everyone, but those are the only negotiations we have.” And it is difficult for a movement to really emerge separate from the major mobilizations of recent years: those on gender conflicts, for migrant rights, and those related to the environmental crisis.
Furthermore, the issue of building an alternative coalition to the Meloni government looms large, as the M5S was reminded by the presence at the forefront of Sardinia Regional President Alessandra Todde and possible Campania candidate Roberto Fico. “We have to kick the right out. We, together, united, have the responsibility of building an alternative,” said Nicola Fratoianni, addressing the protesters, boasting that he had told Antonio Tajani to go to hell the other day on the Chamber floor during a discussion of war and the Middle East.
“Meloni calls herself an underdog, but she has 30 years of political life behind her,” Conte added, “and she has Crosetto by her side explaining that the arms lobby is very powerful and that if she wants a long career, she shouldn’t upset the arms industry.”
Boccia, speaking to reporters, explained the presence of the PD group at the march: “We are here because we believe that an alternative to a disastrous government requires the unity of the opposition forces. Many issues unite us, many more than those that divide us. On the other side is a divided right that is in government thanks to our divisions.”
Moving beyond these divisions also has to do with the ability to recognize the gaps, and the causes that generated them.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/la-piazza-piena-del-conte-pacifista-siamo-centomila-2 on 2025-04-06