Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement must adapt if it wants to become a permanent feature of Italy’s party system

One of the most important developments in Italian politics in recent years has been the emergence of the Five Star Movement, led by Beppe Grillo, which secured over a quarter of the vote share in the 2013 Italian general election. Filippo Tronconi writes that while the scale of the Five Star Movement’s success in its first general election was remarkable, its first two years in parliament have seen the party struggle to meaningfully influence the policy process. He argues that a normalisation of its organisational structure and a more clearly defined ideological position in the Italian party system would go some way toward preventing an erosion of the party’s support.