I am considering stopping contracts –

The guarantor has no right of veto, his statements are incompatible with the Movement and his communication contract is one step away from becoming waste paper. In the letter sent by Giuseppe Conte in response to Beppe Grillo’s warning, the recent frostiness between the president and the founder of M5S becomes a real clash that seems to have reached the final battle. “The custody of the fundamental values ​​of the political action of the movement – we read in the text of the former prime minister – and the power of authentic, non-questionable interpretation of the statutory provisions (I do not want to discuss here the legitimacy and the concrete legal relevance of such a high-sounding provision), are resolved in a moral suasion, but certainly do not extend to the exercise of a supposed right of veto or even to the inhibition of the assembly consultation on one or more issues of the life of the Movement”. And again: “Your repeated public statements are accrediting in the eyes of public opinion a ‘dominical’ conception of the Movement”, writes Conte. “These statements are completely incompatible with the obligations you specifically assumed towards the Movement with reference to both the surety and the advertising and communication contracts – he adds – this obliges me to evaluate possible initiatives aimed at suspending the execution of the services to be performed by the Movement deriving from the surety, and the withdrawal from the advertising and communication contracts”.

The letter is dated September 11. Six days earlier, again via certified email, Grillo sent a formal notice in which he asked to stop the constituent process and reiterated the three unquestionable pillars: the rule of mandates, the symbol and the name of the movement. Another four days passed and the final battle broke out: yesterday Grillo, “irritated” by the contents of the letter, confided to his followers that “they want to get rid of him”; today he urged Conte to publish their correspondence “soon” and on the Movement’s website; then Conte’s vitriolic letter appeared in the press. “A necessary letter, in tone and manner – party sources explained in the evening – to protect the community of the 5 Star Movement from a formal notice that aims to sabotage the constituent process and muzzle free debate in our community”. In the five-star C’eravamo tanto amati, the ‘Elevato’ thus becomes the ‘saboteur’ who “plays dirty to transform the deliberative process into a minefield of legal battles and unfairness”, those closest to the president report. And Conte’s letter also includes a dig at the former mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi, who has made no secret of siding with the founder: “I am also forwarding this note to the Guarantee Committee – is the post scriptum to the letter – given that one of its members has just publicly invited you to make full use of your statutory ‘powers'”. In short, the cards between the two leaders are on the table, the troops are lined up and everything suggests that the final showdown is near.