Five Star under fire over gas pipeline

Italy’s populist Five Star Movement is struggling to downplay campaign promises to axe the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) now it is in power and facing pressure from the US and EU to allow it to be completed.
Alfredo Fasiello, the owner of a beach club in San Foca in Italy’s heel, voted Five Star this year because he thought the party would back his battle against the 880km, US$5.2-billion pipeline to bring gas from Azerbaijan to Italy.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte recently met Marco Poti, the mayor of Melendugno, who is threatening to block work on the TAP, but Conte was non-committal after the meeting.
“I assured them the government will conduct an in-depth assessment of the whole dossier,” Conte said after the meeting, adding that legal commitments had been made by the previous government.
Five Star the joined the government and its youthful leader Luigi Di Maio is the minister for economic development but the party’s position on the TAP is frustrating many southern voters, who form the backbone of the movement’s support.
“We hoped they would have a trace of the honesty and transparency that they talk so much about. They were here 1,000 times,” said Fasiello, whose beach club is above the pipeline route.
“If Five Star betrays us, they will never get another vote here,” the 62-year-old told the media. “They’ll be ashamed to show up on the beaches. It’s not just this area. If they betray us, everyone will know not to trust them.”
Five Star opposed the conventional parties and big business interests, running a nationalist-themed campaign filled with conspiratorial promises against global business and suspicion of the traditional establishment.
The residents’ opposition to the project has centred on alleged environment risks and fear the pipeline will deter tourists.
“Would you ever bring your child swimming here? With an atomic bomb underneath? It’s a tumour,” Fasiello added. “It’s three metres in diameter and you can drive a car through it.”
The pipeline has confronted the inexperienced Five Star with the choice of governing in an interconnected world where government actions have consequences.
Italy imports 90 per cent of its energy and Washington and Brussels believe the TAP will weaken Russia’s oil and gas grip on the EU.
But Five Star and its coalition partner, the League, are opponents of sanctions against Russia and want closer connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin while failing to agree with the strategic goal of reducing the Kremlin’s energy influence.
But US and EU pressure, the prospect of billions of euros in penalties and the loss of credibility for future investment is making Five Star backtrack.
League leader Matteo Salvini recently said the pipeline needed to be finished to reduce gas prices and help the impoverished south develop. It is due for completion in 2020.
Barbara Lezzi, a Five Star leader from nearby Lecce, who is now the government’s minister for the south and built her election campaign around opposing the TAP. She also held flash-mob protests on the beach.
Beppe Grillo, Five Star co-founder, marched against the TAP in 2014.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline has been making progress through Greece. Picture credit: YouTube