With its low growth, huge debts, shaky banks, and dysfunctional political system, Italy owes little gratitude to its establishment. As a result, it has not just one, but two, prominent populist parties, which makes it unique in Europe.
Five Star is a populist party without a fixed ideology that focuses on process. Five Star’s idea is to bypass the usual establishment gatekeepers by using the internet and direct democracy. The League, on the other hand, is a typical right-wing populist party that blames everything on the EU and illegal immigrants. The two actually combined forces in government for about a year, but it didn’t work, and now Five Star, much diminished in popularity, is allied with the conventional left.
A party with such fluid ideological positions–just a critique of the process–was always destined to be more a factor in opposition than in government. Five Star probably won’t survive more than a few more years. The League, on the other hand, is sort of thriving even though it is out of power, and you can expect it to be a major player during the next election.