Ignazio D’Andria is in no doubt at all about the matter. When Alessandro Di Battista, one of the most prominent members of the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, came to Taranto to hold a rally two years ago he was welcomed as a hero, but now he would be kicked out.
Ignazio is the owner of Minibar, the main bar in Tamburi, the blue collar district that backs onto Ilva, Europe’s largest steelworks. What was once the ancient capital of Magna Grecia is now one of the most polluted industrial areas of Italy. The 5-Star Movement won almost 50 per cent of the votes here in last year's general election with the promise to close the 15.000-hectare plant, which 60 years after its foundation has been the cause of both death and environmental disaster.
But one year after the 5SM came to power, that promise has not been kept, prompting the local representatives of the anti-establishment movement in the city council to resign. “People feel betrayed, they will never vote for them again”, says Ignazio, whose bar is just a few meters away from the industrial site and its 200 chimneys. “The air here is lethal, those who can go away but those who cannot are trapped”, he says pointing outside to the empty square.
