My objective is zero cost politics. Virtually zero cost. Tending to zero cost. The cost of politics has brought about the end of politics. People get into politics for money, to rescue those that are threatened by the Magistrature, to provide their children with well-paid jobs, or to become wealthy in their own right (an objective that many of them actually achieve) or at least rather well-off. The more the costs of politics increases, the more these costs can be distributed, shared out amongst those involved in politics. More Provinces equals more money. More Authorities equals more money. Salaries created from nothing for organisations that are completely useless. Politics at zero-cost, virtually zero-cost, or indeed tending to zero-cost is actually a possibility. The 5-Star MoVement is proof of that. The total cost of our entire election campaign in 5 Regions was a mere 40,000 Euro. For this, we received about 500,000 votes. Our cost per vote was therefore about 8 cents. What did one of the PdL’s or the PDwithoutanel’s votes or one of Casini’s votes cost them? And who actually paid for these votes? Was it Berlusconi or Bersani, or was it the citizens of this Country that paid for them? The Web cuts out the party middle men and the citizen elected by his fellow citizen only requires an honest salary. No club house, no bowling alley and no headquarters and branch offices paid for by the taxpayer. By their own choice, the 5-Star Movement’s representatives elected to the Piedmont and Emilia Romagna Regional Councils will only be taking one third of their normal monthly salary: 2,500 Euro instead of 10,000 Euro before deductions. Being elected to public office is an honour, nota n honorarium, and even less so a fat salary. For what? The 5-Star MoVement turned down their election reimbursement of 1,700,000 Euro. This is the same old public funding scheme for the political parties, which was rejected in a referendum and has now been re-introduced by the back door in the form of a reimbursement of expenses that were never incurred in the first place. The political parties would not be able to survive for a single day without these hundreds of millions of funding. They are made of money. When a politician talks about the cost of politics, he’s thinking of his own salary. Within the parties, after the party Secretary, and sometimes even before the party Secretary, come the Treasurer, the individual who holds the purse strings. The Web enables people to communicate and run an election campaign at low cost, as well as to dialogue with the elected officials and to see what he is doing. If it is indeed true that we are all equal, then why should the politician cost more? Politics is no longer market related; it is exorbitantly expensive and produces absolutely nothing. The cost of politics must become like the air, in other words, invisible. The 5-Star MoVement is all about politics at zero cost so, shall we take a bet that it will have no imitators? Refuse zero, Km zero, Politics zero. They may never give up (is it in their interest?), but neither will we.