To say it all is the hashtag that rages on Twitter: #Traditore. Where the “traitor” in question is Luigi Di Maio, Foreign Minister of the Draghi government and fresh architect of the most painful tear in the history of the Five Star Movement. Di Maio’s farewell to the 5S, the culmination of an internal crisis with Giuseppe Conte, has sparked the rumble of those who have not digested the change of course of one of the party’s heavyweights. The most popular are videos and quotes by Di Maio himself on the “turncoats”, understood as the parliamentarians dedicated to the “change of coat” after landing in Parliament. A parable now disputed to Di Maio himself, overwhelmed by posts and memes that accuse him of having – in fact – betrayed his mandate for personal interests.
The viral video about “turncoats”
The highlight of the social protests is a video dating back to January 31, 2017, when Di Maio held the role of “political leader” of the Five Star Movement. In the clip, the future minister of governments Conte and Draghi attacks the “cow market” of party changes, counting at least 388 “party turncoats” from 2013 to that year, underlining how some deputies have reached six transfers over the span of a four-year period. What interests users, however, are not the statistics, but the leap from the hard line of those years to the change of course formalized on 21 June.
“For the 5 Star Movement – he explains – if one wants to go to a party other than the one voted by his constituents, he resigns and gives way to another”. In Italy, Di Maio adds to the dose in the video, “they don’t care: once they are in Parliament the voters no longer count, what matters is the seat, the mega-saloon and the desire for power.” One I accuse which leads to the rule then espoused by the Five Stars and by Di Maio himself: whoever “betrays the vote” of the voters, “goes home”. “Call it what you want – concludes Di Maio in the video – mandate bond, institutional seriousness, respect for the popular will. Nobody is denied the right to change their minds, but if you do, you go home and get re-elected ”.
The words and tones of five years ago feed today’s sarcasms, almost all aimed at Di Maio’s “inconsistency” and the metamorphosis experienced by the Five Star Movement itself. In addition to the video on turncoats, images circulate with his quotes on the subject, such as a post on Facebook where the same theses reiterated at that period of his career are proposed: those who “change their shirts”, wrote Di Maio at the beginning of 2017, show that they “care about just your status, your salary and your position “. Among the memes and ironic posts, the images of armchairs and “cadreghe” depopulate, the inevitable reference to parliamentary seats and to what should be Di Maio’s motivation: to attempt re-election in 2023, seeking hospitality and votes in a different force from the Five Stars. Although there are those who accuse him of other repositioning, such as the alliance with the Democratic Party (the “Bibbiano party”) or the anti-NGO line, renamed the “sea taxis” also in the electoral program of the Five Stars.
From «drinker to statesman», the other ironies on social media
There is no shortage of ironies on the change in perception of Di Maio himself, who has become an increasingly appreciated interlocutor in the same environments that have opposed him for years. The centrist turn of the Foreign Minister seems to have earned him the rehabilitation of parties and commentators who pointed out the gaps in his academic and political curriculum, mocking him with the two most popular nicknames among his detractors: “Giggino” and above all “Bibitaro”, a referring to his experience as a steward at the San Paolo stadium in Naples. On Twitter the metamorphosis “from drinker to statesman” is underlined, underlining how the new political course with Draghi has removed years of mockery and brought Di Maio closer to the most mainstream. It is a “miracle”, comment some users, re-launching the flattering judgments on Di Maio’s “delicate” choice and the sense of “responsibility” shown in his proximity to Draghi. Paradoxically, the labels that had been attached to him are the most popular among his supporters of the past, enraged with the breaking of one of the historic faces of the rise of the Five Stars. The “turncoat” appreciated now, at least on social media, by himself former detractors of him.