“Grillo? Conte will take everything away from him” –

5 Star Movement’s house in a turmoil. Split? “I don’t see this risk”. In an interview with Repubblica, party leader Giuseppe Conte dismisses the possibility that the clash in his movement will have extreme consequences. “We have started an unstoppable constituent process”, he explains. As for Beppe Grillo’s reaction, the former prime minister recalls that “he has made precise contractual commitments that oblige him to never raise questions about the Movement’s use of the symbol”. But how do things really stand and what are the scenarios. Luigi Di Maio is the one breaking the silence. The guarantor of the M5S could stop the next vote on the double mandate rule and on the modification of the symbol but “he won’t” because he has lost his courage. The risk, for the Genoese comedian, is that Giuseppe Conte “will take everything away from him”, including the rich consultancy contract worth 300 thousand euros a year.

While the dispute between the president and the guarantor of the 5 Star Movement heats up, the former political leader of the 5 Star Movement Luigi Di Maio, interviewed by telephone by Adnkronos (leaving for Saudi Arabia), intervenes to have his say on the clash at the top of the M5S, which risks compromising the new constituent path started by Conte: “I am happy to answer, because for days some exponents of the Movement have continued to quote me in the newspapers”. On one side Grillo, who considers the symbol and rule of the double mandate of the “irreplaceable pillars”; on the other the former prime minister, who wants to leave the possibility for members to decide on these issues. Who will win? “Grillo does not have the courage to take initiatives. Otherwise he would have already done so”, says Di Maio, who since last year has held the role of Special Representative of the European Union for the Persian Gulf.

Yet, according to Di Maio, Grillo would have the right cards in his hand to stop Conte: “In the summer of 2021 – he says – when I negotiated the agreement between Conte and Grillo, we gave Beppe enormous power that he squandered, leaving it unused”. The “doomsday” weapon (to quote Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”) would be Article 12, paragraph 2 of the new statute, which – Di Maio explains – gives the guarantor “a prerogative I would dare say papal” or “the power of authentic, non-questionable interpretation of the statute’s rules”. An unused tool, at least for now: “Up until now Grillo has only made a few appeals to members via blog to please the former parliamentarians who bombard him with phone calls every day (a classic of Beppe’s decisions). But I understand he has not yet formalized an act to Conte with the interpretation according to which votes cannot be called on the two mandates and the symbol, as they are the constitutive principles of the political force. And I doubt he will do so”, adds the former Foreign Minister.