Luigi Di Maio has announced that there will be a new 5Star linked group in the European Parliament | Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty images Italy’s 5Stars launch new group in European Parliament Di Maio says group’s aim is ‘putting together a different Europe.’

ROME — Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5Star Movement and Italian deputy prime minister, on Friday announced the creation of a new group "of like-minded people” within the European Parliament ahead of May’s election.

Joining the 5Stars are Croatia’s Zivi Zid (Human Shield), Finland’s liberal Liike Nyt, Greece’s AKKEL (the Agricultural Livestock Party), and Poland’s far-right Kukiz'15.

Its main objective, according to a pamphlet handed to journalists at a press conference, is “to attract movements that don’t feel part of right-wing nationalist parties nor of traditional parties that have been part of the EU Parliament for 20 years and are the cause of the crazy policies that have led to the current fragmentation of Europe.”

Di Maio, who is in government with the far-right League, said he has been in talks with members of France’s Yellow Jackets, “which is a very complex movement and we won’t enter an alliance with the violent part of the organization.” A recent visit to France by Di Maio to meet with the Yellow Jackets was one of the reasons for Paris recalling its ambassador to Rome.

The 5Star MEPs are currently in a parliamentary group called the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) alongside UKIP, which will be leaving the Parliament as a result of Brexit. The exit of the 5Stars effectively ends the EFDD.

The EU’s corruption has taken democracy away from people — Pawel Kukiz, Kukiz'15

The new grouping falls short of the number of MEPs and countries represented needed to form an official group. However, Di Maio said two more parties are close to joining.

At the launch event in Rome, the politicians unveiled a common manifesto for EU agriculture, climate and economic policies.

“We have our differences but the main principle at the heart of this new group is putting together a different Europe, our main objective is to improve citizens’ lifestyles,” Di Maio said.

“This group will tip the scale in the European Parliament because the EPP (European People's Party) and the S&D (Socialists and Democrats) won’t have enough votes to govern alone,” he added.

Paweł Kukiz, a former singer who set up Kukiz'15, said: “Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, things haven’t changed much in terms of citizens’ rights and the management of power [in the EU].

“How can Brussels say democracy is currently being violated in Poland if democracy in Poland doesn’t exist?” he added. “We want the EU of bureaucrats and corruption to end."

AKKEL’s leader, Evangelos Tsiobanidis, said Greece will “always be forced to ask for financing because the country isn’t able to fully provide for its own food needs ... the country is an occupied nation like during WWII, the only difference is that now it is occupied by NATO and the EU as well.

“Greece has lost its sovereignty, the EU’s corruption has taken democracy away from people,” he added.

Echoing a similar argument made by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Strasbourg this week, Tsiobanidis said: “We are in favor of the EU although it sounds like we are Euroskeptics but this is because we don’t want to leave the EU, we want to change it.”