The leader of Italy's anti-establishment party Five Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio, met in Brussels on Tuesday with the leaders of three parties advocating direct democracy, including Ivan Sincic, leader of Croatia's opposition party Zivi Zid.

Di Maio, who is seeking to bring together European political parties ideologically close to his own ahead of this year’s European Parliament elections, met with Sincic, as well as former rock musician Pawel Kukiz, leader of Poland’s Kukiz’15 populist political movement, and Karoliina Kahonen of Finland’s Liike Nyt movement.

Zivi Zid is the third most popular party in Croatia, and it holds three seats in the Croatian 151-seat parliament.

They discussed cooperation in the upcoming European elections, set to take place in May this year.

In an interview with Italy’s daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, Di Maio said the negotiations with Kukiz’15 and Croatian Zivi Zid were nearing completion, while those with Liike Nyt were expected to be completed in about ten days.

Zivi Zid secretary-general Tihomir Lukanic told the Croatian state news agency Hina on Friday that “cooperation hasn’t been formalised yet.”

In October last year, Zivi Zid leadership had confirmed that the party was in contact with the Five Star Movement, which they had described as an anti-establishment and “anti-imperialist” party, and announced intentions to cooperate with them.

“We talked about a programme and the things we have in common. We are currently working on a possible joint programme and if we manage to agree, we will present it together to the public soon,” Lukanic said on Friday, adding that they had “exchanged experience in the fight against corruption, organised crime and the establishment.”

In February the three parties are expected to sign in Rome a ten-point manifesto founded on direct democracy, Di Maio said, adding that the manifesto would focus on social rights, with which they wanted to “reduce the privileges of the few.”

The Five Star Movement is currently part of the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group in the European Parliament, which holds 41 out of European Parliament’s 751 seats.

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