Municipal elections, even M5S candidates age – Corriere.it

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The Contian mutation of the Five Stars lands in the Municipalities. And it’s not just a matter of alliances or political battles. It is a transformation that concerns the profile of the Five Stars. Or rather: of its candidates. The Movement in the next, imminent Municipal elections will often run alone, as practically always happened until a few years ago. However, the identity of the mayoral candidates in the field has changed profoundly. As well as the Movement. Once in 2012, the M5S elected its first mayors: thirty-something rampant like Roberto Castiglion in Sonego (in the province of Vicenza) or Federico Pizzarotti in Parma. Profiles designed to attract the vote of young people, as well as those (in 2016) of Chiara Appendino or Virginia Raggi. Candidates who were often branded as inexperienced (but who in many cases are still in the political arena) for a party that was also and above all the party of the Net.

Now, after two decades and a legislature in power, something has changed. To study the identikit of the new M5S candidate, simply scroll through the list of the main voting municipalities. Entrepreneurs, engineers (of course there are still former bagmen), lawyers in their fifties. «We grow old», jokes a starry. But behind the jokes there are new affinities, new political sensitivities. It’s not just the issues that have changed – No Tav, no Tap and no Vax know something about it – it’s not just the words (with the vaffa finished in the drawer by statute): it’s also the audience of potential voters. The choice in the Municipalities is not accidental: if in 2013 the average age of M5S deputies was 33, it is now 45.7. The Internet and young people seem to have fallen into the background, the Movement now looks elsewhere.

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