12/01/2017 (Agence Europe) – 'Five Star Movement' (M5s) member Marco Zanni of Italy has joined the Europhobic group Europe of Nations and Freedoms (known by its French acronym, ENL), in response to the abortive attempt by the leader of M5s, the comedian Beppe Grillo, and the President of the Liberals, Guy Verhofstadt, to incorporate the 17 M5s MEPs into the ALDE group (see EUROPE 11699). "Italy will never take off again unless it decides in all autonomy on its membership of the single currency, the banks, the economy. Marco Zanni, who joined our group as an independent (on Wednesday), will help to achieve this objective", the leader of the Lega Nord, Matteo Salvini, announced in a press release on Wednesday 11 January (our translation throughout). He went on to add: "we are not afraid of Europe, we are not Europhobic. It is simply that we wish to make genuine changes to this Europe". (MB)