'Thanks, but no thanks', EU Liberals tell Italy's 5-Star
The Liberals in the European Parliament have rejected a request by Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement to join their group, saying there were fundamental differences in their visions for the future of Europe.
The decision by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) is a humiliation for 5-Star, whose members voted earlier in the day to break its alliance with the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) in favour of ALDE.
"There is insufficient common ground to proceed with the request of the Five Star Movement to join the ALDE Group," ALDE's leader Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, said in a statement. "There remain fundamental differences on key European issues."
READ: Italy's 5-Star breaks ties with UKIP in European Parliament
Verhofstadt is a keen European federalist whose strongly pro-EU views 5-Star has previously ridiculed.
Some 78 per cent of 5-Star's members who participated in an online vote on Monday backed the proposal by the party's founder Beppe Grillo to abandon UKIP and hook up with ALDE.
The move prompted an angry reaction from UKIP founder Nigel Farage, who said Grillo had "joined the establishment".
5-Star now finds itself in...