ROME – Beppe Grillo makes a pro-European turn: in favour of a vote on the Euro not on a definitive exit from the Union, the Corriere della Sera reports.

 On Thursday, in conjunction with the Brexit referendum in Britain, Beppe Grillo’s blog, was updated to clarify his party’s exact position with regards to the EU. It states that the party “has no intention of abandoning the community of the European Union” but acknowledges that there are fundamental issues and “many aspects of the EU that do not function.”

 However, rather than retract membership, Grillo says that “the only way to change this ‘Union’ is from within, collaborating with all parties, including the Eurosceptic leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage.”

 Another change of tune from the leader of the Movimento Cinque Stello (M5S) on the party line, but this brings Grillo’s views on the EU more in tune with the new mayor of Rome and M5S representative, Virginia Raggi. The cohesive message is now clear: “Europe isn’t perfect, but Italy must  remain within the Union and work towards it’s reform.”

 Critics of the political movement led by Grillo, draw attention to the contradiction between this new stance, and that of M5S in January 2015, where Grillo, again on his blog, wrote about the EU that there was “no hope of improving this criminal system from within, which has put our economy on its knees.”

 Yet what hasn’t changed is Grillo’s resolution to put the single currency to the vote in Italy, which he blames as responsible for leading the country’s economy into the dire straits in which it now finds itself. The leader of the political movement confirms “We have never said that we want to leave the EU it is merely a question of alteration and reform.” Sceptics wonder when and where the next swing in party line will come.

dt