New Political Actors in Europe-Digital populism: Beppe Grillo and the Movimento 5 Stelle

This study concerns the Facebook supporters of Beppe Grilloand his Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S – 5-Star Movement). It isbased on a survey of 1,865 Facebook fans of Grillo and the M5S. Although the data set is drawn from supporters of both Grilloand the M5S, we refer to them throughout this report as ‘BeppeGrillo Facebook fans’. Where possible, we present this information within thecontext of broader Italian society and make comparisons tosimilar data on other non-mainstream parties in Western Europe,as presented in the Demos report The New Face of Digital Populism. By drawing such parallels, we are not claiming that theM5S is a populist movement of the same type as those in thatreport. Whether the M5S can and should be classified as‘populist’ is not a concern of ours here. Rather, this comparisonis useful for us in understanding how – as a new political actor –the movement is similar to, and differs from, other movementsand parties which challenge the establishment