Albanese, Varoufakis and Jeffrey Sachs: the M5S’s very "The Left"-style event

The Five Star Movement is courting the most left-wing wing of the broad coalition with the programme for the closing event of the ‘Nova – parola all’Italia’ tour. The event, which will take place on 19 and 20 September at the World Join Centre in Milan, will feature several leading figures from the AvS front, ranging from former Greek Minister of Economy Yanis Varoufakis to Francesca Albanese.

The first day of the event will focus on the economy: following the opening speeches by the Five Star Movement’s group leaders in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, Pirondini and Ricciardi, and the M5S delegation leader to the European Parliament, Pasquale Tridico, there will be a panel discussion entitled “Verso Nord. Economia per il bene comune”. Here, university lecturers Giuliano Noci and Leonardo Becchetti will conduct an interview with economists James Kenneth Galbraith and Jayati Ghosh, who specialise in inequality and development. This will be followed by a presentation by geologist Mario Tozzi. Not to be missed is the panel dedicated to one of the major issues of the moment, artificial intelligence, led by Matteo Flora, Barbara Gallavotti and Elvis Tusha, whilst the keynote speaker at the subsequent session, entitled ‘Another Climate’, will be another economist: Jeremy Rifkin, the theorist behind the ‘zero marginal cost society’.

Later in the day, the big names so dear to the left will finally take to the stage: as part of the ‘Nova Peace Forum’, none other than Jeffrey Sachs will speak – the economist who advised Gorbachev and Yeltsin after the fall of the Berlin Wall and who, in recent years, has espoused a wide range of anti-Western conspiracy theories: from Covid originating in a US laboratory to the CIA’s involvement in the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine. Immediately afterwards, it will be the turn of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.

Sunday’s programme opens with a speech by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, a stubborn remnant of Athens’ past radical-populist era. The day will then continue with a session on the constitution and freedom, a panel discussion led by journalist Valentina Petrini, and a talk by Senator Roberto Scarpinato, former Attorney General of Palermo, on the subject of the Mafia. Next up will be Travaglio and Del Debbio, speakers at a session entitled ‘The Crossroads’. Both days will conclude with a speech by Conte.

For the Five Star Movement, this marks the final stop on a journey lasting several months, which has taken in over a hundred locations across Italy with the aim of gathering proposals and ideas for the future of the progressive coalition. “For months on end, we have been building, gathering your requests, your priorities and your urgent concerns. And now we have plenty of proposals,” announced Conte in a video posted on his social media profiles, inviting people to Milan to “shape the Italy we want”. It remains to be seen whether this vision – which is increasingly tilted towards China and Russia – will find support across the broader political spectrum.